Crossplay
by Kuniklino
Summary: Mito Uzumaki told Kushina that love could tame the nine-tailed beast. Mito was right. It did. Love changes everything... Chapter 9 Tenten's quest and the team shuffle
1. Prologue

Kurama paced in the small cell, its mind replaying those last few seconds of freedom over and over. The dead demon seal, that shikigami had taken fully half its chakra! Kurama smiled bitterly to itself, it had had just enough warning to offer its yang chakra first, preserving the yin and allowing it to be calm in the seal instead of raging insanity.

Even so, that was minor compared to what had happened before, and the fragment of what Kushina had gasped out that it had heard. '_If I had any regrets...it would be that I won't see Naruto grow up,_' she had gasped out.

Kushina. Kurama sighed to itself. It had felt the seal weakening during her childbirth, but had had no plans to attempt to escape. It had been ripped out of her seal with no warning, and those eyes... Kurama growled. No need to revisit that part.

But Kushina... it _missed_ her. This seal was different, there was no way to perceive the world outside from in here. Kushina's seal had allowed that, and Kurama had painfully come to admit to itself that she had succeeded in her task far more than she would have ever known. It had actually grown to _love_ her. The ache of missing her was painful, and didn't seem like it would ever abate. It has known her every thought and feeling, and now her last wish kept replaying it its thoughts over and over again.

'_If I had any regrets...it would be that I won't see Naruto grow up._'

And then, after timeless pacing, Kurama had an idea. The seal wouldn't allow it, yet. But eventually the seal would weaken, and Kurama didn't have a limited memory like all those monkeys did. Perhaps that ache could be filled after all. Perhaps...

oOo;

Naruto stared blankly at the stars. He felt so tired, but he'd had a hard time getting to sleep ever since that day two weeks ago. Sasuke. Haku. Zabuza. The snow. The stars didn't have any answers, but he finally felt sleep approaching. He turned on his side, closing his eyes, and as he drifted off he murmured, "Gonna be Hokage someday, 'ttebane."


	2. Chapter 1

Naruto woke and stretched. Ever since the mission to Wave Country, he'd felt... _wrong_. Not really in any way that he could describe, but the feeling had been getting more and more intense every morning. He tossed his head in frustration and then froze halfway through the motion. _No_. Something was _definitely_ wrong.

Shaking his head to clear it out, he got up and looked around his (_dingy_) apartment. Slowly he got dressed, feeling spikes of that wrongness popping up as he did (_orange?_), as he looked around the apartment (_no separate bedroom? cracks in the plaster on the walls?_), as he made delicious cup ramen (_for breakfast?_) and happily consumed it like he did every morning (_how is this healthy? I'm a growing... boy?_).

_No_. The wrongness wasn't going away today. Huffing to himself a bit, he grabbed his kunai, his sword... _no_, he didn't use a sword (_can feel the kata, the balance of the blade_). He didn't _own_ a sword. And if he kept this up, he was going to be late!

Rushing out the door (_quietly now, it's morning_) he quickly got to the meeting point. Sakura-chan (_'chan'? really?_) and Sasuke (_Sasuke-kun! All grown up now!_) were already waiting. He opened his mouth to greet Sakura with his normal enthusiasm, and somehow ended up saying, "Hey, Sasuke!" instead. Both Sakura and Sasuke (_kun!_) looked at him with blank surprise, and then Sasuke turned his head away with a quiet, "Hn."

Trying not to look as unsettled as he felt, he walked past Sasuke and leaned against the wall to wait for Kakashi-sensei.

oOo;

Sakura looked between the two of them. They'd been acting weird to each other ever since Wave, but this was a totally new level of weird even for Naruto. He actually greeted Sasuke-kun instead of her? Maybe, _oh please finally_, he had gotten the idea that she didn't and would never like him?

She watched as Naruto stood to wait by Sasuke-kun. Usually she ended up standing in the middle but today that seemed to be Sasuke-kun's job. Over the next hour she watched with an ever-increasing feeling of disquiet as Sasuke-kun slowly edged his way away from Naruto and Naruto kept glancing at him with what almost looked like approval.

She narrowed her eyes as a horrible, utterly impossible thought occurred to her. Naruto had stolen her Sasuke-kun's first kiss... '_No_,' she thought, '_that couldn't be true. Never._' And yet...

oOo;

Kakashi Hatake smiled to himself as he spotted his wonderful little team. He loved to see their reactions to his excuses, they were always just the thing to help get his mind off of his old team and onto the business of the day. "Hey, guys! I got lost!" he shouted with a wave.

He watched Sakura glance nervously at Sasuke and Naruto and then say with a subdued voice, "You're late, Kakashi-sensei." He almost stumbled at that. He'd been watching the tension between the three of them grow since the mission to Wave, but this... this wasn't right.

Sakura and Sasuke were standing fairly close together as was pretty standard, with Naruto off to the side a bit watching them. What was _not_ normal was that Sasuke wasn't trying to edge away from Sakura, and Naruto was standing nearer to him than Sakura. Even worse, Naruto didn't immediately hop up ready for action. He wasn't even fidgeting! No, this didn't seem right at all.

He'd been running team 7 through more D-rank missions, expecting one of them to protest out of frustration any time now. He'd been certain that Naruto would be the one to snap first, but now? He actually had to suppress the urge to look blankly at them.

Perhaps a mission would give him more insight into what had changed.

oOo;

Naruto almost couldn't believe himself when he thanked Sasuke-kun for his help during the day's mission. He hadn't really meant to, but Sasuke-kun had done a fine job even though D-rank missions were (_pitifully_) easy. From the expression on Sasuke-kun's face, he couldn't believe it either, and Sakura actually seemed _angry_ about the whole thing!

He had thanked her (_calmly now_) as well and then made his escape before he said anything even more strange, and now somehow he found himself in the park. As he'd left, he'd heard Sakura asking if Sasuke-kun would like to work on _teamwork_ (_oh come on, they're eleven!_) with her. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

As the day turned to evening, he found himself tugging his (_orange! really? have I no fashion sense at all?_) jacket a little tighter around himself and a deep sense of loneliness hit him. It wasn't the same as what he felt when he watched children and their parents, this seemed somehow both more personal and more specific. Something was missing, something important, and he didn't know what.

As he walked across the pond's footbridge, he glanced down and it was like he'd never seen his reflection before. He knelt down and reached for it, and found himself whispering, "Minato..." The loneliness was almost unbearable, and everything suddenly seemed so horribly _wrong_. Everything. The apartment, Kakashi-sensei, the looks the civilians and even a few of the ninja he'd passed today and the mutters, and especially the way he looked and felt and his voice and his hair and his face and his horrible bright ugly clothes.

Before he knew it he was running back to the apartment trying to hold back sobs, and then he was in bed clutching his pillow and crying. And then, afterwards, he felt so drained he just fell asleep.

oOo;

Kurama nodded to itself in satisfaction. It was done finally. The seal had been weakened just enough, and Kurama was after all a crafty nine-tailed kitsune. And soon it would have Kushina back for good. The anticipation was almost unbearable.

oOo;

Kushina woke up feeling totally disoriented. She'd just given birth to her darling baby Naruto, and then Minato had flashed away with him, and that man in the mask had... and the rest was gone. She stretched cautiously. No pain, but her body felt very very odd, and then suddenly her life flashed before her eyes. Her _new_ life. Her life as her son. Her horrible life as her abused, mistreated, maleducated son. The one that was _supposed_ to be the village hero!

Eyes narrowing, she took stock of her situation. She didn't know how it had happened, or why, but she was certain that it would be better if nobody else _ever_ found out about her. This was going to be difficult, but she wasn't a kunoichi and a jinchuuriki for nothing! And then something important entered her awareness. Something that she absolutely did _not_ want to think about or deal with. She needed to use the restroom.

oOo;

The toilet had been bad enough, but the shower was torture. She felt like she was a creepy old lady and the feeling just would _not_ go away! She shivered. Getting used to this wasn't going to be easy.

And the orange. '_Why orange? Why?! Day-glow kill-me-now orange? That totally clashes with red! Oh, wait, no. My hair is blonde now, not red_,' she thought to herself. As the shivering got worse she henged herself into herself and breathed a sigh of relief. '_I can't do this often, but maybe just a little right now to help me center myself_.'

Her expression in the mirror looked brittle. Slowly the shivering went away and she relaxed. '_What happened_,' she wondered, '_what happened to me? What happened to Minato? Why did Naruto, why did I grow up without us?_' And then she remembered. He had died fighting the nine-tails, and somehow everyone had forgotten that she'd been pregnant with his child!

And Naruto's godfather. '_Where is Jiraiya? Why wasn't he here to raise and protect Naruto... me? This is confusing, I just need to accept that somehow I am Naruto now, as well as being Kushina_,' she thought with a half grin, half grimace. '_Uzumaki Naruto Kushina at your service. The only shinobi to ever have gone through childbirth. Oh. Oh, no. Puberty is going to be bad_.'

She shook herself. '_No, think about that later. First I need to fix this horrible situation. And..._' Her thoughts trailed off with a frown as something else occurred to her. Mizuki. '_I'm the nine-tails jinchuuriki again. Still. But how? Without chaining it myself? What happened to... me?_' And that brought up another point. '_My chakra, it's surging. My control is shot. Do I even have my special chakra anymore? And my training... what were they thinking? I'm going to have to totally retrain my muscle memory. And find a good sword. And buy better clothing. And burn the orange in the hottest fire I can find, datteba...ne!_'

She giggled to herself a little. '_I guess that I passed that on even though I hoped not to. But I should probably use dattebayo when I'm not henged, it just sounds less feminine_.' She blinked. '_Henge_,' she thought, '_I'm henged right now but I don't feel any strain at all_.' She shook her hair. '_I suppose if I do henge, I should do it as my younger self, not as an adult. Too many people might wonder why I haven't aged otherwise, but as a younger girl I can pass myself off as a daughter or something... if they even remember me at all, dattebane._'

She released the henge, and nothing happened. Frowning, she henged back into Naruto, shivering a bit as she did so, then tried to release the henge again. Nothing. She then tried henging into a nondescript civilian and releasing it, and immediately snapped back into Naruto. '_This is... odd. Henge doesn't work like this!_' she thought distractedly. She henged into her body from right after Academy graduation, and again there was no henge to release. '_...I don't know why, but I'm just going to be grateful that I won't have to spend all my time as a boy_.' She henged one last time into her adult form, and this time when she released it she snapped back into her youthful body.

Frowning, she tried again three times more with the same result. Adult wouldn't stick, but either her-as-a-beginning-kunoichi or her-as-Naruto worked perfectly. When she looked into the mirror, her face had the same 'whisker marks' that it did as Naruto. '_I have no idea what's happening here_.' Oiroke no jutsu? No, that snapped back too, and when she did it from female form she got what she would consider quite the hunk out of it. '_Definitely no Minato, but still pleasing on the eyes, red hair and all_.'

Looking distastefully at the evil orange, she slowly and unwillingly got dressed. '_I think that later today is going to be Fun With Henge time. The shopkeepers may not like Naruto, but they're civilians. And I want to maim most of the Academy teachers for not teaching him... me critical thinking_.' With a slight grimace of distaste, she switched back to Naruto and then he looked over what he could only loosely term breakfast. '_Tonight my diet changes. Much less ramen, and more fruits and vegetables and meat. And curry. Spicy curry_.'

oOo;

Kakashi Hatake was troubled. Something drastic had changed with Naruto, and he had no clue at all what it could have been. He had watched Naruto carefully all during the mission yesterday, and he actually seemed to _approve_ of Sasuke now. There didn't seem to be any kind of attraction there, just a very odd, out-of-the-blue respect. Even stranger he seemed to have totally forgotten his attraction to Sakura overnight.

'_I can't say that this is bad as far as teamwork is concerned_,' he mused. '_Still it's worrying that something happened that I'm not aware of, something that could cause a change of this magnitude overnight. When I talked to Iruka last night he hadn't heard anything either. I'm not really sure that this is good for teamwork either... if Naruto doesn't see Sasuke as a rival anymore, then motivating him will be much more difficult. I really don't want to have to ride herd on Naruto-the-Prankster every day._'

With that unhappy thought in mind he stared at the memorial stone, hoping for inspiration.

oOo;

When Naruto arrived he found that for once he was the first one there. Shrugging, he gathered a few leaves and placed one on his forehead. '_Leaf Concentration is boring, but I need better chakra control, datteba..yo._'

His chakra felt ominously quiescent, like some huge tide waiting to flood everything. It felt nothing like it did in her...his previous life. '_I'm not sure if I want to try my chakra chains. If I don't have them anymore, if my chakra is too different, then what will I do? How will I handle being a jinchuuriki?_' Shaking his head a little and missing the feel of her hair, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the leaf.

When he heard a "Hn," he opened his eyes and nodded respectfully to Sasuke-kun. Really it was the least he could do for his former friend Mikoto. Poor Sasuke had had a rough time of it since his family had been massacred, and adding to his stress was something that Naruto just didn't have the heart to do anymore. '_It helps that I'm not exactly attracted to Sakura-san anymore. I don't know what I'll do when puberty strikes, or who or what I'll end up being attracted to now. I'm not sure that anyone in the entire world has ever had the problem I'm facing now._' Sasuke looked mildly surprised, but when Naruto closed his eyes again to continue with the Leaf Concentration he didn't make any more noise.

He only opened them again when he heard Sakura muttering under her breath, and found Sasuke sitting nearby also doing Leaf Concentration. When he opened his eyes Sakura said, "Oh, Naruto. Your little 'friends' told me yesterday that you promised to 'play ninja' with them, but they couldn't find you anywhere. Why are you playing ninja?"

As Naruto opened his mouth to answer, Sasuke said, "When does he _not_ play ninja?"

Feeling vaguely offended but mostly amused at Sasuke, Naruto answered, "Because they're going to be ninja too, and because nobody in Konoha should feel like they're insignificant. It doesn't hurt me, and it helps them. Do I need another reason, Sakura-san?" She looked taken aback at both the logic and the more formal mode of address, and Sasuke looked surprised that he hadn't gotten an insult in return.

Settling back and returning to the Leaf Concentration, Naruto put them out of his mind.

oOo;

Sakura and Sasuke looked at Naruto and then at each other, and then Sasuke too returned to Leaf Concentration. She was feeling offended, she found, by the more formal address Naruto had used. She'd been 'Sakura-chan' for so long that it felt unnatural to have Naruto call her anything else, and the uneasy feeling she'd had yesterday returned full force.

'_Did I offend him somehow? If so, how? He hasn't been offended all the way through Academy, not enough to call me Sakura-san. ...not that I _want_ him to call me Sakura-chan anymore, of course! (That's for Sasuke to call me, shannaro!)_' she thought, ending with a firm nod to herself. But still, that uneasy feeling just wouldn't leave...

oOo;

Kakashi Hatake caught sight of his team, and immediately stopped to study them. Sakura was pacing back and forth, obviously waiting for him to show up, but both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to be practicing _Leaf Concentration_! No, something was _clearly_ wrong with Naruto, he was sitting still and concentrating with his eyes closed. Naruto, the boy that could stay neither _still_ nor _quiet_, was doing both. He wasn't sure why Sasuke was doing the same, but at least it wasn't horribly out of character for him. '_And I nominated them for the Chuunin Exams yesterday! This could be very bad. Perhaps Iruka was correct?_'

Waiting until Sakura's pacing left her with her back to him, he quickly moved closer to them, and then just before she turned around he loudly said, "Morning, people!" Sakura gave out a little shriek and spun around with her hand on her chest, and Sasuke jumped slightly. Interestingly, Naruto did _not_ jump, he merely opened his eyes and said, "Good morning, Kakashi-sensei." Adding that observation to the rest to mull over later, he said, "This is sudden, but... I've nominated you guys for the Chuunin Selection Exam."

As he held out the application forms, Naruto asked, "Sensei, are you sure that we're ready for the exams?" At that he almost dropped the forms, and Sakura snatched them out of his hand with a "What did you say!?"

"Well, Naruto, this is just a nomination," Kakashi answered. "Whether to take the exam is up to each of you. Those who wish to take it should sign those papers and turn them in at room 301 by 4pm tomorrow."

Naruto took his with a thoughtful (_thoughtful?!_) nod, and Kakashi walked off with a simple, "That is all."

No, something was wrong. Horribly wrong. This had to be reported to the Hokage immediately.

oOo;

Sasuke looked at his application, and remarked, "There will probably be strong opponents in the exams. By facing them, I can get stronger." His eyes had an almost feral gleam in them.

Sakura looked down at her exam and thought, '_Sasuke-kun doesn't even think that I'm as good as Naruto. Do I really want to do this? Can I even keep up with them both?_' She didn't have an answer.

Naruto just nodded to Sasuke and walked off slowly studying the application.


	3. Chapter 2

Kurama sighed in relief, that hole it had had in its existence was finally filled, and now it knew that no matter what happened, even if it was sealed into any of the other little monkeys, it could _always_ bring back Kushina. It leaned against the bars of the cage, drawing comfort from _her_ feel. Its chakra, like a huge lake, flowed along and caressed the bars. Life, such as it was, was good.

oOo;

Kakashi Hatake shook his head. "No, sir, you don't understand. _He_ asked _me_ if the team was ready! Could someone have replaced him to infiltrate the exams?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of Konoha, sat back and puffed at his pipe. '_If so, then this is much more serious than any prank._' Summoning Cat, he commanded, "Bring Uzumaki Naruto here immediately!" Less than five minutes later, Cat escorted him in. He subtly indicated that Cat should stay, and be on guard.

He leaned forward to study the boy. Naruto looked hesitantly up at him and said, "Hello, Hokage-sama," with a bow. '_Well, it seems that Kakashi is correct, this is utterly unprecedented. Naruto simply doesn't do respectful_,' he mused. '_Something has definitely changed, though wrong may not be the proper word for this._'

"Naruto, please remove your jacket and shirt for me," he asked. He watched carefully as Naruto complied, seeing no hint of defiance. "We need to check the seal that holds your _prisoner_, to make sure that it's in proper condition for the Chuunin Selection Exams," he explained gently. Once his shirt had been removed, Sarutobi asked him, "Please focus your chakra and hold still."

He watched as Naruto nodded, and the seal appeared. '_Well_,' he thought to himself, '_that in itself is sufficient proof that Naruto hasn't been replaced, and if the seal was weakening he wouldn't be getting_ calmer, _not at all_.'

"Thank you, Naruto. Everything seems fine. How are you feeling? We haven't talked recently," Sarutobi inquired.

Naruto put his shirt and jacket back on, and answered, "Everything is fine, Hokage-sama. Thank you for asking."

"Are you certain, Naruto?" pressed the Hokage. "You've been quite sedate and polite tonight."

Naruto nodded and explained, "I realized that if I wanted respect, I had to _show_ respect, and that people listen better if I'm polite and um... quiet?"

Sarutobi glanced at Kakashi with a hint of an unspoken question, and Kakashi asked, "What about the leaf concentration you were doing earlier?"

"If I'm going to get strong I need to train, and that kind of training isn't loud or tiring," Naruto answered.

Kakashi gave a subtle nod to the Hokage. Neither of them had detected a lie. "That's all we needed, Naruto. Thank you for coming so quickly," he said with a smile.

Naruto bowed, and left the room, and with a subtle signal Cat sealed it behind him. "It's unusual to be sure, but not totally unheard-of for people to change after their first serious mission. His new attitude is definitely... quieter," the Hokage noted.

oOo;

Naruto sighed in relief once she...he closed his apartment door behind him, and collapsed onto his bed. That meeting had been stressful and totally unexpected, and it was by luck alone that he hadn't started shopping when the ANBU had appeared.

Rolling over, he formed a seal, and a kage bunshin poofed into existence. Handing it some money, he said, "Please transform and buy me something not-orange to wear for tomorrow? Actually, pick up a few outfits for both genders." The clone nodded, and seconds later Kushina was on her way shopping for new clothing for her and her _boyfriend_.

After trying unsuccessfully to relax, he finally decided to take a shower. In the safety of the bathroom she finally felt safe enough to change back, and the water helped her muscles to unknot. Finally with a sigh, she just let the water run over her while she thought.

'_I have a very unfair advantage, even if my taijutsu isn't as polished as it will be when I retrain myself. But more importantly, I'm going to have to be very, very careful not to slip and reveal that I know more than I should._' Thinking back over her new life, there were only a few somewhat esoteric skills that she could justify having without people wondering where and more importantly _when_ she had learned them. '_The major skill that I can easily justify would be trap knowledge. There's absolutely no way I can get away with suddenly knowing fuuinjutsu, and likewise chakra chains are out of consideration. I suppose that knowing some outdoorsmanship would be justifiable as well. That's about all I can come up with._'

Nodding to herself at the color and cut of the clothing she had gotten for her- and himself, she shut the shower off. As she dried herself off, she planned out what kind of trapping supplies she should bring with her tomorrow, as well as what other supplies to pack. Grabbing the clothing from the couch, she made a mental note to include at least a few ration bars, then stopped as she realized that what she had just done should have been impossible.

'_I knew what clothing my clone had purchased before I left the shower. No, it's more than that, I remember haggling with the clothier! These clones, shadow clones, it's no wonder they're on the Scroll of Seals. I'll have to test it later, and see what parts of retraining the jutsu will help me with. I'd think not with any kind of physical fitness, as I can't see how exercise could carry over, but definitely anything mental. This changes everything, dattebane!_' Her excitement was almost palpable in its intensity.

Looking at the clothes, she sighed and switched back to Naruto, then got dressed. Dark blue pants, a similarly dark green sleeveless shirt over a mesh shirt. '_Much better than the bleeding-eye orange_,' he thought with satisfaction.

Lying back on his bed, he thought back over the past two weeks. '_Something's different about me, more than everything else that's happened. Different from Naruto, different from old-me, too. It's not just that I... woke up, for lack of a better way to put it. I'm calmer overall, and some of the things that I would have exploded at like Sasuke-kun's insult earlier just didn't feel like enough of a provocation to make it worth the bad feelings. I feel... less fiery, more introspective. It's a good thing, but where is it coming from?_'

His stomach gurgled, and he made a face at the sound. '_With no real food in the house, I suppose that a visit to Ichiraku's is in order. Ramen, with extra _everything_ but noodles... and maybe one salt ramen as well just because it's so very delicious._' Nodding to himself, he left for his late lunch. Salt ramen especially was worth looking forward to.

oOo;

They met up in the early afternoon the next day. Naruto had been careful to stock a pack with some rations and a decent amount of ninja wire, along with a few of the less obvious tools a good trapmaker might need, like a small saw. Although he dearly wished for a sword, now was just not the time to get one.

Naruto was the only one with a pack, and both Sakura and Sasuke-kun looked at him and his clothes and his pack curiously. He just smiled and shrugged and said, "Are you both ready?" Sasuke-kun answered with a simple "Hn," while Sakura nodded uncertainly.

"I bet that one of the other teams tries to prank the rest, so that everyone either is late or misses it entirely. If something seems wrong, why don't we just ignore everyone that gets stuck and take care of ourselves?" he asked. The surprise was a lot more evident on their faces now, and Sakura seemed like she almost wanted to ask something but finally just nodded.

When they got to the second floor there was a crowd standing outside room 301, and Naruto couldn't help rolling his eyes at his teammates. He got a smirk back from Sasuke-kun, and even Sakura had a small smile for him. They edged around the crowd, and continued up to the _real_ room 301.

When they arrived Kakashi-sensei was waiting for them, and when he saw Naruto's new clothing and pack he shook his head. "Oooh, you're earlier than I expected. And I see Sakura came too.. now we can properly take the exam," he said.

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura.

"The truth is that this test can only be taken by teams of three," answered Kakashi-sensei.

"You said that taking the test was an individual choice. Another one of your lies?" asked Sakura a bit angrily.

"If I told the truth," he answered with a glance at Naruto, "Sasuke would have pressured you to take the exam. Even if you didn't want to, if Sasuke asked you to..." Sakura nodded in response, and he continued, "but you came here of your own will, you guys are my cute team. Now go!"

With a shared smile they entered the room.

oOo;

"This room is huge, but not many teams are here yet," noted Naruto.

Sasuke-kun nodded in response. "The ones that are here look pretty strong, too," he added.

Sakura looked around and then said, "Let's just take our seats and wait for the test to start. I wonder how many teams are going to be stuck downstairs?"

They all sat down at an empty table near the front of the room, and idly watched the teams streaming in. Suddenly Sakura hissed with displeasure, and even Sasuke-kun seemed to be trying to draw less attention to himself. Looking up Naruto saw the illustrious members of team 8, team 9, and the apparently hated-by-Sakura team 10 coming in the door.

The noise in the room had been getting steadily louder as people bragged about what looked like playing cards, how strong their villages were and how weak the others were, and they watched as the guy with the cards got his glasses broken and even threw up. Shaking his head, Naruto glanced around the rest of the room. It was still fairly empty, and the clock was running out. With luck they would have a lot less opposition for the exams than they could have had.

Suddenly a cloud of smoke erupted from the front of the room, and a much more imposing looking now Ibuki Morino appeared with several others that Naruto guessed were going to be their proctors. As he called out the people that had been fighting, Naruto noted with satisfaction that the room was still not completely full, and it appeared that quite a few teams just didn't make it. '_Good._'

Unfortunately they didn't end up sitting together, their seats ended up being randomly assigned and they had all gotten crowded to the front of the room with all the empty seats in the back. As the rules were explained (no questions allowed, being caught cheating loses points, cheat too blatantly or get caught too many times and you _and_ your team fail), Naruto relaxed and recentered himself. He had an hour, and there wasn't really any reason to worry about this part of the test in any case.

The tenth question ended up being a trick just as Naruto had known it would be, but both Sakura and Sasuke-kun stayed while team after team quit. By the time everyone was done leaving, the room was mostly empty.

oOo;

Mitarashi Anko was the proctor for the second test, which ended up being partly a survival test as Naruto had thought. Both of his teammates were looking at his pack with a little more respect now.

As Anko passed out the waivers and the scrolls, Sakura asked him, "Naruto, um.. why did you bring that pack? Why aren't you wearing the same thing you usually do? How did you pass the written test? Don't you hate those? What _happened_ to you?"

Sasuke-kun showed an interest in the answers to those questions too so Naruto answered, "Wave happened, and then I started thinking... _really_ thinking about what being a ninja meant, and where I was weak. So I decided to get... better, I suppose. And my pack has the stuff I use for pranks and that I think will work for making traps too."

Sakura blinked. '_I'm not sure what answer I was expecting, but I don't think it was that. I guess it makes sense that pranks and traps are similar, and if so than Naruto has more experience making them than everyone else in the class put together!_' Suddenly she was feeling a lot better about him being on her team.

oOo;

Once they entered the Forest of Death, Sasuke-kun had suggested that they just get to the tower as soon as possible, and then trap the whole area. Both Naruto and Sakura agreed and so they hurried toward the center.

Naruto had been getting more and more uncomfortable as time went on. It wasn't any kind of danger sense, it was just the continuing _wrongness_ of being male. '_I don't dare transform in front of my team, so my best bet is to get an Earth scroll to match with our Heaven scroll and get inside the tower as soon as possible._' He tried to repress a shiver.

"You know," he said, "We only need to disable or kill one member of a team to rid ourselves of the entire team. We don't even have to make lethal traps..."

Sasuke-kun gave him an approving glance at that, and Sakura looked shocked. "Do you really think we should try to kill people like that, Naruto?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered pensively. "Maybe, but even if we only disable it will be good, right? We don't know what the third test will be, after all."

Sakura nodded, and then went back to concentrating on her breathing. '_I don't want me to be the one slowing Sasuke-kun down, after all! (shannaro!),_' she thought.

oOo;

Two hours later, they had their Earth scroll. They hadn't been the only team to plan on trapping the area around the tower, but they had gotten there first and with better tools. Sadly that team from Amegakure would end up struggling to replace their scroll with a team member with a broken arm and leg. They'd been unlucky enough to hit almost the first deadfall that Team 7 had set up.

They spent a little time setting up a few more, and then Naruto in an act of _kindness_ had given some of his trap making/pranking tools to the Amegakure team.

The shower was heavenly, though almost all of that was because she could transform and could lock the door.

oOo;

Orochimaru was frustrated. He wanted the Uchiha boy, but he'd somehow disappeared before Orochimaru had managed to catch up to him. He would end up searching nearly the entire Forest of Death fruitlessly for almost the entire five days.

oOo;

Literally _every_ team that came in after Team 7 came in cursing whoever ended up laying all those traps. Over half of the members in all the teams that made it were disabled with broken bones or worse. Out of the nine teams that made it in there ended up being total of 12 members that were still combat-worthy, and that was including the _lucky_ Team 7.

Given the low numbers that survived unscathed, it was decided that a preliminary round would not take place. After drawing the lots, the six matches ended up thus:

Haruno Sakura vs. Rock Lee

Hoki vs. Uzumaki Naruto

Hyuuga Hinata vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Mubi vs. Tsuchi Kin

Akado Yoroi vs. Nara Shikamaru

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Midare

On his way out of the room Naruto was somewhat surprised to be thanked by Midare. His team had apparently managed quite well with the supplies Naruto had lent him, even if he was the only one of them to emerge unscathed.

Once the delay before the final round was announced Naruto nodded to himself. '_A month is enough time to retrain my taijutsu at least a bit, and perhaps enough for me to justify picking up a sword._'


	4. Chapter 3

Sakura looked up when her match was determined, and immediately wished she hadn't when her eyes met Rock Lee's. She stepped closer to Sasuke-kun when the the boy in the green jumpsuit had the audacity to _wink_ at her. '_What does he think we're going to do in our match? Eww, I don't want to know,_' she thought with disgust. '_I'm going to have to research him during this next month. I might not be as strong as Sasuke-kun or Naruto, but I'm definitely smarter and with this much time I'll have a great plan!_'

oOo;

Naruto watched Hoki with a little curiosity. '_Out of his team he was the only one to make it past all the traps so maybe he's better than he looks, or maybe he's just lucky. Either way I don't think he'll be much of a problem_,' he thought. '_Of the others, Midare and his team did pretty good with the stuff I gave them, they managed to get both a Heaven scroll and another Earth scroll. Rock Lee is going to be trouble for Sakura, he carries himself like a taijutsu specialist. Hinata-san is a Hyuuga, so that means she'll be using their family's Gentle Fist style. Sabaku no Gaara... he worries me, his own teammates seem scared of him and that's never a good thing. Mubi is another one from Ame, but from a different team than Midare. Tsuchi Kin is from that new village, Oto. Both Akado Yoroi and Nara Shikamaru are from Konoha._'

He watched as Sakura tried to subtly shield herself from Rock Lee using Sasuke-kun. '_I should help her, I think. She's been a lot less annoying the past couple of days, and her trap suggestions were just vicious._'

Nudging Sasuke-kun, Naruto nodded slightly towards Sakura and whispered, "She's been really helpful lately, and a lot less annoying... maybe she deserves a reward to encourage that?"

Sasuke-kun gave him a quizzical look and whispered back, "You've given up on her, dob... er, Naruto?" He nodded back in response and watched as Sasuke-kun sent her a speculative glance.

oOo;

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched as Mitarashi Anko hobbled into the his office on crutches with a leg in a cast. From her expression she seemed eager and almost happy.

"Hokage, I want to train one of Kakashi's team members. We've been dismantling the traps they set in the forest, and someone on his team is just brilliant! Do you _know_ what it's like to be caught among a set of traps so cleverly laid that having a _tree_ fall on you is the safest place to be?!" she exclaimed. "I have to work with whoever laid them, I simply have to!"

'Well, this is unexpected. Kakashi has been planning on training Uchiha Sasuke for the third test, perhaps this will work out for the best,' he thought bemusedly. "Very well, if Kakashi agrees then I have no objections," he said. '_At least it will help keep her mind off of her old teacher._'

oOo;

Kakashi Hatake met with his team the next day, with Mitarashi Anko in tow. To his disgust, she'd managed to track him down and now he was only a disgraceful mere half hour late. Whatever changed Naruto seemed to be catching, all three of them were performing Leaf Concentration while waiting for him. '_Something is odd about their posture, though,_' he thought. '_Wait... they're not actually sitting on the ground leaning against that wall, they're sticking to the wall while pretending to sit! Where did this come from?_'

"Hello, my wonderful and lucky team! You all made it to the third test, and Team 7 is the only team out of the whole test that has more than one person in the finals!" he said cheerfully. '_Gai really didn't like being wrong about how ready my team was, it was perfect!_'

"K-kakashi-sensei? You're... not as late as normal! Why is she with you?" Sakura asked. She obviously wasn't eager to meet Anko again.

Anko hobbled forward on her crutches with a glower. "I want to have a little chat with whoever it was that set up all the traps around the tower," she said in an angry tone of voice.

Sakura gulped and Naruto spoke up, "We all helped set them up, but Sakura-san here is the one that planned them all out." Sasuke nodded in agreement, and she glared at them both then looked back at Anko with trepidation.

Anko moved in close, into Sakura's personal space, and then hugged her with a loud squeal. "Oh, we're going to have so much fun! Those traps were brilliant, diabolical! They even got _me_, it was amazing! Have you ever thought about using poisons with them?," she chattered happily.

Sakura slowly relaxed. "Y-you're not angry at being caught? But your leg...?" she asked.

Kakashi interrupted, "In any case, Anko here has agreed to train you for the third test, Sakura. For the next month, you'll report to her. Sasuke, I'll be giving you intensive personal training as well. Naruto, you'll..."

Naruto interrupted in turn, "Kakashi-sensei, I have some ideas that I'd like to work on by myself, if that's alright with you?"

"If you're certain, Naruto? I had arranged for Ebisu to help you train, but you've done so well in the last week that if you really want to train alone I won't disagree," Kakashi said. '_I wonder what he'll come up with? I was sure that Naruto was going to be the one Anko chose, but he didn't even _try_ to take any credit. Whatever it is, it's going to be interesting._'

Naruto nodded with certainty. "I'm going to try to learn a sword style I found in the Archive Library," he explained. "I think that will help me the most."

'_Not what I was expecting, but kenjutsu certainly won't be a bad thing for him to know if he can pick it up. A month ago the thought of him learning from a scroll would have been ludicrous, but now it doesn't seem at all unlikely,_' Kakashi thought. "Very well Naruto, I'll leave your training up to you then."

oOo;

Sasuke had been thinking about Naruto's suggestion since yesterday, and had come to the conclusion that rewarding Sakura for _not_ acting like a fangirl was indeed a good thing. '_She's been surprisingly competent during the last week. Maybe all that she needed was a different approach. If she keeps this up then she'll finally be the teammate that I deserved to get originally. For that matter, Naruto has been acting a lot less annoying too. He didn't complain about Kakashi-sensei's personal training at all_.'

As the team broke up for individual training, he decided. "Sakura," he called.

She stopped and looked at him inquisitively.

"After training come to the Uchiha compound tonight. Let's have dinner," he said calmly.

From the look of utter shock on her face, the small nod she gave him was the only thing she was capable of at the moment. '_No squealing, no running up and hugging. Yes, this could work. Even Naruto seems happy with how she is taking this._'

oOo;

Sakura was floating through each day now. The meal with Sasuke-kun had turned into a regular thing, and Anko-sensei was teaching her all about being a better kunoichi. Poisons, more traps and strategy, seduction (_seducing-Sasuke-kun, shannaro!_) techniques, even simple things like what a proper diet for a ninja was.

As she learned she slowly pieced together her plan to win against the incredibly lame taijutsu specialist Rock Lee. They had run into him and his sensei only once since the second test, and that experience was disturbing enough for them to go out of their way to avoid the two ever since.

Sasuke slowly opened up to her, too. The person that he was going to kill was his (ex-)brother, Uchiha Itachi, and she had privately vowed to help Sasuke become stronger every way she could. As he told her of his training each day, she offered suggestions on how to maximize his growth and power.

Yes. And Ino the fangirl would weep in the street when she found out. Life was going great.

oOo;

The Archive Library had been a lie, of course. The kenjutsu style that Kushina would be retraining herself in, like the taijutsu style, wasn't to be found on any scroll in the Archive. It was really nothing more than an expedient excuse that let her evade supervision while also justifying more of her skills.

Sword shopping was fun. Being able to sword shop as a girl made it a hundred times better. She finally settled on a half-meter ninjato and a compression sheath on her back, which would keep the sword in place even though it was 'upside-down' on her back and would allow her to draw and use it with a reverse grip.

Retraining wasn't as much fun as the sword shopping had been. She ended up having to modify both her taijutsu and her kenjutsu in her male form, as it simply lacked the flexibility she was accustomed to. That combined with her discomfort while male was really making her hate her new life even as it made her feel guilty about not liking her child.

Careful testing of the kage bunshin revealed that chakra control and knowledge carried over, while muscle memory and exercise did not. '_I'm actually somewhat grateful that muscle memory doesn't carry over,_' she had thought upon finding that out. '_Before I woke, Naruto had thousands if not tens of thousands of hours of flawed taijutsu due to the technique. Trying to overcome bad habits ingrained so thoroughly would have been incredibly frustrating._' Still, the clones were useful.

By the third day of her retraining, she had two years of chakra control in her memories. By the fifth, she had six years. The seventh day had her dancing through her sword kata on the rapids of a river near one of the training grounds while performing Sword Concentration. By the fifteenth day she had over one hundred years of chakra control, and was starting to feel like she was one of those old monks she had met once upon a previous life.

Her chakra, she had found, was like a bottomless lake: cool, placid, and never-ending. The merest whisper of chakra was enough to form a clone without even the use of a seal, and her Sword Concentration was performed at such a fine level of control that the very metal of the sword seemed to help her. Although she hadn't tried it, she was certain that she could run up a waterfall if necessary, or even sleep on open water. '_It really is regrettable that I never learned iryo jutsu, I could probably be one of the best medical ninja ever at this point,_' she mused. '_I should try to learn some when I get a chance, along with genjutsu._' She could even feel the nine-tails within her. It was strange, it felt comforting more than anything else, not at all like what it felt like in her old life. With a little concentration she could even feel the seal itself.

Perhaps it was time to train in something other than chakra control.

oOo;

Uchiha Sasuke was pleased. He would have to thank Naruto next time he saw him, his suggestion to reward Sakura's proper behavior had borne fruits far beyond his expectations.

'_Sakura's suggestions almost always help. Who knew that there was a study on phased muscle memory training in the Archive Library?_' Sure, he hadn't any idea of what that even _was_ before she told him, but her suggested schedule meant that he was learning moves and perfecting them faster than ever before. The weights she suggested were helping a lot too, he could _feel_ himself getting stronger at the end of each day.

The most surprising part was that he no longer felt quite so alone all the time. She was starting to actually understand him and learning to avoid annoying him, and that made all the difference.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hinata watched the girl with the sword in awe. She was dancing on the river, on top of the water, and to her byakugan the sword looked like one big tenketsu. She'd been looking for her one inspiration, Naruto-kun, but what she found was more inspiration than she had hoped to find by far.

When the girl paused and then changed into _Naruto-kun_ she fell into a faint.

oOo;

Naruto looked around. When he'd changed back he had felt a feeling of surprise and shock nearby that almost immediately faded away. He'd noticed for the last day or so someone hovering around the edges of his chakra, and so he moved towards where the feelings had come from, sheathing his sword as he went.

'_Even without any real technique it seems that I've turned into some kind of chakra or emotion sensor. It's only been like this since yesterday, I wonder what it is that I'm doing?_' he thought.

When he came upon the girl, Hyuuga Hinata-san, he knew that this would be trouble. Sighing to himself, he picked her up and moved back towards the river.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hinata opened her eyes, and gasped as she found Naruto bending over her. Avoiding his gaze for the moment she felt a cold compress on her forehead. Apparently Naruto-kun had found her and was trying to help her? She blushed and found herself poking her fingertips together as she watched his face out of the corner of her eye.

"Hinata-san, are you alright?" Naruto-kun asked her.

She started to nod automatically, then stopped and shook her head a little. "I s-saw you. You w-were a g-girl," she said softly.

He nodded and explained, "Just before the exams started I was playing around with henge, and something weird happened. I changed like this," and he changed into the girl again, "and when I went to drop the henge I didn't turn back. If I change back using henge I stick that way, if I change to this I stick. Everything else is a normal henge. I don't really know why... maybe it's a bloodline ability?"

She looked the female Naruto (_Naruto-chan?_) over. She was cute, with red hair and blue eyes. Her voice was unexpectedly gentle. "M-maybe... I've never heard o-of such a th-thing before." She thought back to the image of this girl dancing on the river, and the sword... "Oh!" she gasped, remembering. "Y-your sword... it was l-like a giant t-tenketsu!"

Naruto...chan unsheathed the sword and held it out to her with a shrug. As Hinata muttered 'byakugan' she explained, "You remember Leaf Concentration from the Academy, right?"

She nodded. The sword looked normal right now, not special at all. She tried to hide her disappointment.

Naruto-chan continued, "I was using what I call Sword Concentration. Just like Leaf Concentration, only I focus my chakra to my hand instead of my forehead, and into a sword instead of a leaf. See?"

The sword seemed to come alight with chakra, and she touched it hesitantly. It was cool to the touch, and as she touched it she felt her nervousness at talking to Naruto-chan melt away. "What does it do?" she asked.

"I guess it might make the sword stronger, but it's really just supposed to help with chakra control," Naruto-chan answered. "It doesn't make it super-sharp or anything like that."

"Oh," she said, fascinated still by the sight. "It's beautiful, you know."

"Um... Hinata-san?" Naruto-chan asked hesitantly.

With a calm that she had never felt before, she replied, "You can call me -chan if you want, Naruto-chan, if I can too?"

"Okay," Naruto-chan nodded, "but only when I'm like this. Please use -kun when I'm a boy. But I was going to ask you if you could please keep this, all of this, a secret? Well, not including the -kun."

Hinata nodded. "Can I come watch sometimes? Can I... can you teach me to do that?"

Naruto nodded back. "I can teach you, but I'll have to teach you a clone technique first: kage bunshin. It can help you learn better chakra control, and speed up learning Sword Concentration."

Hinata was so happy with the idea that she forgot to wonder where her stutter had gone.

oOo;

And so Kushina trained Hinata-chan, and sent a clone to the Archive Library each day to read. Hinata had bought a sword similar to hers and was entranced by it the first time she managed to correctly perform the Sword Concentration.

When Hinata-chan's clone used her sword to close one of Hinata-chan's tenketsu, they both knew that this training had become a _lot_ more important. She couldn't really help Hinata-chan train in her style, she didn't have the byakugan and she didn't know the Gentle Fist, so instead she helped her by providing a never-ending supply of sparring partners.

And as they trained, she found her male form increasingly paying attention to Hinata-chan.


	5. Chapter 4

Kakashi Hatake watched in astonishment as Sasuke-kun pulled off yet another amazing combo using moves that he'd only been shown a few days ago that he had blended together utterly flawlessly. It was totally impossible, nobody learned like that, Sasuke-kun was a genius, and it was utterly beautiful. '_Jab, backfist, rising shin kick, spinning elbow strike, thrust kick, fireball? Oh, he was making the hand seals during the elbow strike and that last kick. Not many people are going to expect a fireball to the face in a pitched taijutsu match._'

Sasuke-kun had obviously been working on his endurance, too. And earlier today he'd casually mentioned the weights he was wearing. Kakashi could honestly say that he was simply a joy to teach. Even without the sharingan activated Sasuke-kun soaked up everything he was shown and was able to show that he'd truly mastered it within days.

"Time for a short break, my strong genin," he called out to Sasuke-kun. "I've got a new ninjutsu for you to master, so activate those pretty sharingan for me. Good! Now this is one I made myself, named _chidori_..."

oOo;

Haruno Sakura looked at the three hopeful faces before her with a small frown. "No, I haven't seen your _boss_ anywhere since he started training by himself. I'm sorry," she said apologetically. Konohamaru Corps nodded sadly and started to trudge off. Their downcast expressions tugged at her heart, and Naruto's voice whispered in her mind, '_It doesn't hurt me, and it helps them._'

'_Well, I don't have anything that I absolutely need to get done right this instant, I guess...'_ she thought. "Hey, Konohamaru-kun. If you want, I'll play ninja with you guys for a while," she said with a smile. '_The joy on their faces is totally worth it,_' she thought. '_Maybe this is why Naruto does it?_'

oOo;

'_It's amazing how much having another person around brightens up the day,_' Naruto mused. '_I'd forgotten how much fun being around people is._'

Naruto had realized that something just wasn't right when he'd gone back into Konoha last night and the muttering of the villagers evoked a fond nostalgia. When he realized that _going to sleep_ felt foreign he finally figured out what the problem was. '_Oops. I had so many clones training with chakra control every day and dispelling before dinner that most of my life now feels like one long summer day. Before I left the training ground today I even tried to dispel myself! I'm going to have to be really careful from now on, or I'll lose myself in the memories of my clones,_' he thought worriedly. '_I'm even having a hard time remembering what salt ramen tastes like, and I know that I love it! Hm... I suppose it wouldn't hurt for me to go and get some, just to remind myself..._'

On the way he caught sight of the sunset and was captivated by how wrong it felt for the sun to be going away. '_No! No, no, no. Sunsets are normal. Eternal summer days are not,_' he shook his head to clear it. '_Let's see... Ichi...um, what was it again? Ichi...Ichiramen...Ichiraku! Yeah, that's it! It's this way, I think. Wow, the village looks just like it did way back then._'

When he got there he almost couldn't remember the name of the waitress.

oOo;

Sakura giggled as the Konohamaru Corps went home for the day. Just letting everything go and simply playing for a couple of hours was wonderfully refreshing. She watched with bemusement as Udon-kun tried to make too sharp a turn and lost his footing. '_They're too young to know about conservation of momentum. People can't just make ninety degree turns, it's imposs...,_' her thoughts trailed off as a wonderful idea popped into her head. '_What if I could make a jutsu that made it possible?_' Suddenly her day was a little bit busier than it had been previously.

Less than half an hour later she had her answer. '_Not only is it possible, but the jutsu to do it is ridiculously simple. It would barely count as an E-rank. The only reason nobody would want to use it is because of the math involved, and doing six-dimensional matrix multiplication in your head while fighting is hard. (Math is easy, shannaro! Leave it to me!)_' she blinked at the thought. Most people didn't have 'inner Sakura' on their side, maybe this could work for her after all!

'_If this works, then I can keep the poisoned makibishi as a backup plan. Anko-sensei will be disappointed, but this'll be a lot more fun anyhow,_' she thought with a huge grin. '_I wonder if Sasuke-kun will help me?_'

As she headed to the Archive Library, she reflected on how Naruto's words may have given her the best gift she would ever receive.

oOo;

Sasuke looked up at Sakura from the ground. He was lying flat on his back after being thrown in the most utterly impossible way imaginable. _'Ok, I pushed her, and she popped up and to the left instead of backwards. I have no idea what she was talking about when she mentioned calibration, but pushing doesn't work like that. And then when I pulled on her arm instead of coming towards me she flipped over my head like I was swinging a weight on a string, and halfway through she suddenly was spinning me over her head and into the ground! She even landed without stumbling!_'

She smiled brightly at him as he climbed to his feet. "Thanks, Sasuke-kun! Now I know exactly how it works."

"How does it work? What is _it_?" he asked curiously.

"It's a jutsu I made half an hour before dinner! I'm calling it undōryō henkan no jutsu," she explained.

"Momentum transformation? What does that even mean?" he asked.

"Well, basically it alters my momentum between linear and angular momentum, applying the proper vectors, pitch, yaw, and roll to myself. The jutsu is easy, but you have to know exactly what momentum you have already and what you want... that involves six degrees of freedom, so it's six-dimensional matrix multiplication. What I did was convert my forward momentum to upward momentum when you pulled me and then when I was two-thirds of the way through my arc I converted it all into angular momentum and applied a positive pitch around my center of gravity, and since you didn't let go of my hand you got pulled around my center of gravity too, and then you hit the ground and I converted the extra into upward momentum again and landed on my feet. Easy, right?" she chattered. He'd given up trying to follow exactly what she was saying once she mentioned 'matrix multiplication', whatever _that_ was.

"What else can you do with it?" he asked.

Sakura grinned at him. "Watch this!" She ran at the far wall of the courtyard full-tilt and then suddenly spun in place and was running away again without slowing down. When she got near a tree, suddenly she was moving straight up, and then forward again when she was at the height of a branch.

He shook his head. Whatever she was doing, it was totally unnatural. Jumps didn't _work_ that way. _Nothing_ did.

"So I was thinking, about that taijutsu specialist I'm matched against..." she said. "Do you think that he'll be able to handle me moving like this?"

"Let's spar for real," he replied. "I'll tell you after."

The spar was a disaster, his reflexes were geared towards things like punches pushing his targets _away_ from him and not punches making his target perform a lightning-fast rising upper shin kick without actually getting pushed anywhere. He kept moving into her attacks, and he gave up when she kicked him into the air, immediately spun into a full extension roundhouse kick in midair, and then instead of getting pushed away she was pushed _towards_ him as he flew back and she then somersault axe kicked him into the ground, all without touching the ground herself.

"No. No he won't. It's _insane_. _Nobody_ will be able to handle it. Now teach me how to do it!" he demanded.

He finally gave up sometime around two in the morning. The jutsu itself was barely worthy of being called that, the only seal it took was clapping hands which wasn't even a real seal. It didn't do anything at all unless the user concentrated on the six inputs and the six desired outputs, and guessing the numbers pushed, spun, and twisted him around until he threw up the one time he tried it. It barely even used chakra, and worked as long as the user kept up their concentration.

But no, there was just too much math and no time to do it in a fight. '_Sakura's mind must be a scary, scary place,_' he'd thought with a shudder. He didn't feel bad about not being able to use it, though... what she was doing was dangerous, her body was moving far faster than her reflexes could handle and she wasn't tough enough to really handle those kinds of impacts. He made a note to recommend that she get forearm and shin guards before the match.

oOo;

Kushina sighed. It was annoying, but it had to be done or she'd be weird for the rest of her life. Focusing her chakra she formed several thousand kage bunshin, and they all went on vacation to all the other villages in Fire Country for her. Hopefully a few dozen years of normal activity amongst people would help.

They would be working vacations, and for years after people all over Fire Country would speak reverently of the Charitable Children, and how even odd jobs that had been waiting for years got finished with the only things asked for in reward being food and board for the night. Only Konoha was left out, and thus only Konoha would regard them as a myth.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hiashi watched his daughter Hinata carefully. Over the past week she had suddenly lost her stutter and gained a calm placidness that seemed to be impossible to shake. Hanabi was still better at the Gentle Fist but other than that Hinata was suddenly _exactly_ what he'd been hoping for her to be for the past several years.

'_The truth will be shown in the Chuunin Exam. If she gets a promotion then I'll be able to know for sure_,' he thought with satisfaction. For the first time in a long time he had hope for his daughter.

oOo;

Hinata smiled to herself. Even if things at home were bad, she had her secret weapon: Sword Concentration. Even better, she was starting to work on Senbon Concentration. Ranged Gentle Fist was a dream that all Hyuugas wished for, and now it was within her reach! There wouldn't be any hated Caged Bird Seal in her future, and if she got her way it would never be in _anyone's_ future ever again.

Even during her family-supervised spars with her sister her clones were busy training. She had more salve now than ever before thanks to them too, and best of all she got to spend her days with Naruto-kun and Naruto-chan. The only way life could get any better would be if she got married to him.

Suddenly visions of her waking up next to Naruto-_chan_ assaulted her imagination, and then she felt the blackness claiming her.

oOo;

It was time. He'd been putting it off ever since he thought of it, but now it was time to face up to the possibility of not having chakra chains anymore. Naruto closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then... yes! The chains were as thin and as light as silk threads, but that was probably due to his chakra control. They still felt strong, in fact they felt stronger than ever before. And with that, he was as retrained as he was going to get before the exams.

'_Maybe it's time to start studying to justify my fuuinjutsu proficiency,_' he thought. As he was contemplating fuuinjutsu he missed his chakra chains twisting into the familiar shape of an explosive tag, and when it detonated the ground in a large radius around it he was almost caught in the blast. '_Oooh, chakra chain seals. I have a new toy!_' he thought happily to himself. The happiness only increased when he sealed a tree into his chains, dismissed them, recalled them, and got the tree back out none the worse for wear.

'_I'm never ever going to run out of supplies again!_' he thought with glee.

oOo;

Later that day Kushina was watching her clones spar with Hinata-chan's when she realized that since her clones didn't emit the distinctive puff of smoke they would look clearly _odd_. It was the work of a few seconds to figure out how to replicate the smoke, and then she had an idea.

'_I don't need the kage bunshin to use the smoke, I can make it separately. This sounds like another new technique... I'll call it kage kemuri. It's never a bad thing to have another way to obscure sight, dattebane!_' she thought with a nod. To celebrate her new techniques she treated Hinata-chan to lunch.

When Hinata-chan saw her she flushed almost as red as Kushina's hair, and to Kushina's bemusement spent the entire time acting like she was on a date with her crush. She didn't for a moment think that that might actually be _true_...

oOo;

The night before the final test Team 7 met at the Uchiha Compound with their sensei for the first time in a month. Kakashi of course already knew Sasuke-kun's abilities intimately, and Anko had reported on Sakura's incredible proficiency with traps and now poisons as well as something about an impossible taijutsu style. He saw that Naruto was wearing a sword that he seemed comfortable with now, too. '_Reverse-style draw? How unorthodox. I can see how it might be good for wounding as you pass someone. The blade is shorter than I was expecting him to choose, I suppose that it's nice to see that he chose practicality over impressiveness. Still, as long as Sasuke makes Chuunin I'll be happy no matter how Sakura and Naruto end up._'

He settled back and asked, "Is everyone ready for tomorrow?" He got three nods and two vicious grins in return, with Naruto smiling a calm smile instead. "Good, good. Remember to show up early, I don't want any of you to be disqualified for tardiness."

Sakura snorted at that. "_You're_ telling _us_ not to be late? _Really?_" she scoffed.

'_Ah, she's still so much fun to tease. I should have taken a genin team years ago._' he thought. '_It's too bad that Naruto had to go get all serious after that business in Wave._'

"Maa, maa, settle down. What's important is that you're all ready and eager. Let's not stress about the small things," he told her in a placating tone of voice.

Sakura looked away with a "Hmph!"

Flipping out his favorite book Kakashi let out a giggle, knowing that it would annoy her even more, then asked from behind his book, "Naruto, you spent the entire month training with that sword? How about showing us one of your new kata?"

Naruto nodded and moved out away from the table. He took up a strange stance with most of his weight on his forward foot, and then he _moved_. The blade swept out in a reverse grip, a blocking motion that had Kakashi and Sasuke both wincing and flinching their legs together. And after that he was never still. The kata was built around circular motion (_a whirlpool really, but Naruto would never mention that_), and featured wide shallow slicing motions and vicious reverse stabs.

When he was finished he re-sheathed his blade with a flourish (_meant to fling the blood on the blade away, not that he would mention that either_) and sat down again.

Kakashi was impressed against his wishes. "I'm amazed that you could pick that off of a scroll. That was very graceful. Thank you." Naruto nodded in return.

Sasuke was impressed as well, and happy that even the (former) dead-last was getting stronger. It was only proper for an elite such as himself to have an elite team and teacher. '_So we have my perfection, Sakura's... absolute _insanity_, and Naruto's grace. Why does it feel like they swapped jobs without telling me? At least I can say with utter certainty that they're all going to be totally unprepared for us at the Exam._'

Kakashi stood and said, "I'll see you all tomorrow at the exams! Remember, don't be late!" Then before Sakura could say anything he was gone, via shunshin.

Naruto stood as well. "I'll see you both tomorrow, then," he said, and gave a small wave as he walked off towards the compound entrance.

Sakura stared after him and commented quietly to Sasuke, "You know, it's all because of him and those kids and _playing ninja_ that I have my undōryō henkan no jutsu? He helped me with probably my most powerful technique ever, and all I've done is ignore him or yell at him. He didn't even get any training from Anko, and you know that he worked harder on those traps than I did, right? But he gave his chance to get trained to me..."

Sasuke didn't have any good answer to that. '_Though I'm not sure if Sakura's_ abomination _of a jutsu should be counted for or against him._'

oOo;

Kurama smiled to itself. Kushina was more powerful than ever before and she had no idea how much more powerful she would be when it freely shared of itself to help her. The placid calm of her chakra resonated with Kurama's and each day it was ever more glad that it had lost its yang chakra and not its yin.

'_My yang chakra would have been violent, almost poisonously vital. Instead of struggling with that she'll have the potential to be the greatest chakra sensor, the greatest genjutsu mistress, _and_ the greatest medical ninja the world has ever seen,_' it thought with satisfaction. '_Once the seal has weakened enough for us to converse freely I'll lead her to the fox summoning contract as well._'

'_Ah, now there's a thought. Why not give her a fox form as another base form? Yes. A red fox, a vixen. A summoning red vixen form, so that she retains the ability to speak._' Kurama's smile widened.

Kurama began the tedious and painstaking process of sneaking its chakra around the seal.


	6. Chapter 5

Uzumaki Naruto Kushina moaned tiredly as the morning light hit her face, then immediately sat up with a yelp as she registered her body. She looked herself over with confusion. '_I know that I went to bed last night as Naruto... and now I'm a large red fox?_' she thought worriedly. A quick look at her tail showed that yes, she had only _one_ tail even if it did have a cute white tip. '_That's a relief, at least... turning into even a small nine-tails would be bad._' She shivered, remembering her new life growing up as Naruto. '_Yes, very very _very_ bad._' Shrugging internally she performed a sealless henge into Naruto and got ready for the day. '_My poor opponent won't know what hit him,_' he giggled to himself.

oOo;

Haruno Sakura fitted herself with the torso armor, greaves and bracers that she'd purchased on Sasuke's recommendation. '_I should have thought of it myself,_' she thought, '_but Sasuke-kun was kind enough to mention it when I didn't. He _cares_!_' She shook the stars out of her eyes. '_Sasuke-kun doesn't like fangirls. I'm going to win, he will be mine (shannaro!), I just have to work hard and be the best teammate I can for him!_' she nodded to herself, determination flaring.

'_That Rock Lee creep is going down, and I'm going to beat him using only taijutsu and math! (Math, chaa!) He'd better not hit on me or else I'm going to introduce my greaves to his groin,_' she thought viciously.

oOo;

Uchiha Sasuke rose to greet the day with his normal quiet contemplation. '_Today will be a good day. An elite such as myself cannot help but be promoted over the chaff that surrounds me. Hn,_' he frowned momentarily to himself, then nodded. '_Team 7 is not chaff. Not anymore. They're different, yes, but finally becoming my elite team._'

'_I wonder if Kakashi-sensei will arrive before I get promoted?_' he mused as he walked towards Team 7's meeting point.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hinata smiled to herself as she knocked on Naruto's apartment door. '_It's kind of Naruto-chan to keep my sword here for me. My father would have never let me keep a sword at home... hopefully when he sees today's Sword Concentration and Senbon Concentration I'll get a lot more leeway in how I train. Maybe I'll even see Hanabi-chan give me respectful looks again,_' she thought with happy anticipation.

Naruto-kun opened the door with a wide smile, and beckoned her in. "Have you had breakfast yet, Hinata-chan?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you Naruto-kun," she answered with an equally wide smile.

As they equipped themselves they discussed the upcoming matches. "So what do you know about your opponent, Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto-kun.

She frowned a little. "Nothing really. His team was his brother and sister, but they got hit by traps. He didn't even visit them in the hospital. He doesn't seem like a very kind person. What about um... Hoki, wasn't it?" she asked in return.

"He was one of the team that Team 7 took our Earth Scroll from. I felt a bit sorry for his team, so I lent them some of my trap-making equipment," he explained. "It really paid off, too. They managed to get two scrolls, and almost every other team got decimated."

Hinata nodded. Her team had been one of the decimated teams, and she had only managed to avoid the traps thanks to her byakugan and sheer luck. Even her cousin Neji-kun had gotten caught by a trap. "Kiba and Shino were really unhappy. Even Akamaru got caught. You shouldn't tell them that you gave his team the equipment to get them trapped," she warned.

Naruto laughed. "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on it!" he replied. "Would you like to come with me and meet up with my team? Or does Yuuhi-sensei have you meeting with her somewhere already?"

"Yes," she nodded, "I've got to meet with her. I'll walk you part-way there." She managed to hide her blush before Naruto noticed it.

oOo;

Team 7 was sedately munching on dango that had been graciously supplied by a nearly hyper Anko-sensei, and they were currently listening to her beg to Sakura. "Please, please use the poisoned makibishi too, Sakura-chan! Pleeeeeease?" Anko pleaded with puppy-dog eyes.

"With the diuretic-expectorant-emetic-purgative mix we developed? Anko-sensei, when I send him to the hospital those might kill him!" Sakura argued back. She looked for support amongst her team.

Sasuke-kun nodded with a "hn" and Naruto said, "He's creepy, but he's a Konoha ninja. Save the really nasty stuff for the enemy ninja, right?"

Sasuke-kun looked at Naruto with a baffled expression. "The really nasty stuff? Like Sakura's taijutsu-defying momentum transformation? Once he hits her I don't think the fight will last more than a second longer!" he scoffed.

Anko-sensei pouted, and then shrugged and munched another dango. "You didn't leave them at home, did you? As long as you have them you'll find a use for them somewhere," she said with a nod.

Sakura nodded in return, then mused, "It's too bad we didn't make it a contact mix. Kakashi-sensei could be reading Icha Icha Dehydration next!" Both Anko-sensei and she giggled, and she made a mental note to prepare that mix later that day.

"I just love your devious genius little mind! Kakashi's going to have to watch carefully, or I'm going to steal you away from him... we could use your thinking in the T&I department," she said with a smile.

Sakura blinked then mulled the idea over. '_If I worked at the T&I department I would have time to raise a family. They almost never go out of the village on missions. I might want to take her up on that once I marry Sasuke-kun,_' she thought. Aloud she said, "Well, maybe in six or so years? I want to get more experience in the field first."

Anko looked surprised but pleased at Sakura's easy agreement. The rest of the morning passed quickly and they sat and watched people streaming by them on their way to the stadium.

oOo;

Yuuhi Kurenai looked quizzically at Hinata-chan's gear. She appeared to have acquired a sword, and that pouch of senbon was new too. "Hinata-chan, I thought that your clan was specialized in taijutsu? You've never carried a sword before," she said with a worried tone to her voice. "Carrying an unfamiliar weapon into the Exam won't make a favorable impression, you know."

Instead of the non-confrontational and shy response she was expecting, Hinata-chan looked into her eyes and beamed a wide smile at her. "That's okay, Kurenai-sensei! I know how to use the sword, you'll see," she said with confidence.

Both Shino-kun and Kiba-kun seemed stunned, more by her new demeanor than her sword. After a moment, Kiba-kun spoke up. "That's the way to be, Hinata! With an attitude like that, you can't lose!" he said cheerfully. Akamaru barked in encouragement too.

Shino nodded as well. Pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, he noted, "It's too bad we were injured by those traps and didn't qualify. Nearly everyone is healed up by now."

Kiba nodded with a scowl. "At least we weren't the only team to run into those traps. _That_ would have been so embarrassing!"

Hinata glanced down. She wasn't about to tell her team that she knew where the traps had come from.

oOo;

"With 12 matches," Hayate Gekko explained with a cough while holding out the chart, "We're going to have six tier one matches, three tier two matches, and then three tier three matches. Tier three will be the only tier where you'll be able to lose and still have another match. Are there any questions?"

Nobody spoke, so he nodded and continued. "These matches will be until unconsciousness, death, or surrender. If I step in and say that you've won, you are to stop fighting immediately or else you will be disqualified," he looked at all of them meaningfully. Sabaku no Gaara turned his head away, but all of them nodded as he looked towards them.

"Good. The first fight is Haruno Sakura versus Rock Lee. The rest of you go to the booth," he announced.

oOo;

'_My, Sarutobi is looking his age today,_' thought Orochimaru gleefully. '_The poor fool has no idea what's coming. I haven't been able to corner Uchiha Sasuke yet to grant him my seal, but the plans for invasion are still on track. Gaara won't be fighting the Uchiha until the third tier of matches. That will be the signal for the beginning of the end of Konoha!_'

He settled back in his seat to watch the matches. This Rock Lee was apparently some kind of taijutsu prodigy.

oOo;

Rock Lee looked confidently at the beautiful Haruno Sakura. For some reason his bright smile and playful wink seemed only to enrage her, and when he said, "Tonight let's go out and enjoy our springtime of youth together!" she snapped.

"Just start the match already!" she shouted at the judge.

He nodded, and shouted, "Begin!"

Rock Lee watched as she charged him. '_She is so painfully slow that I feel embarrassed for her,_' he thought. '_I'd better take her down quickly... a throw and a submission hold should do it._'

She was finally in range, so he reached out and grabbed her, and started the throw. Then his world exploded into pain and blackness.

oOo;

'_He asked me _out_?!_' she thought with incredulous anger. '_He's planning on beating me up, then _dating_ me? Oh, hell no!_' As soon as the judge announced the start of the match she charged, He didn't look like he was taking the fight seriously, and that was his mistake.

'_(He grabbed our arm. Brace left hand against his wrist. Forward momentum transform to 40 radians of positive pitch, 50 radians of negative yaw, and 30 radians of positive roll.)_' Inner Sakura directed while Sakura concentrated on following directions. She braced her hand, and felt his wrist snap as she twisted around it, ending almost upside-down facing away from him looking up at the sky. '_(Extend left leg. Momentum transformation additional 70 radians of positive roll, release wrist. Add 50 radians of negative yaw, and negative forward momentum.)_' she finished spinning clockwise and felt the bones in his arm snap as well, then released his wrist and felt her shin impact his left knee sideways. She was now essentially lying in the air with her feet facing him, on her left side, as he started to spin sideways from the kick to his knee. '_(Extend right leg. Add 50 radians of negative roll, momentum upward, momentum forward, 100 radians of negative roll.)_' She spun in midair again from facing the sky to facing the ground as she drifted closer to the body hanging in the air, then flashed into a full-circle full extension kick that caught him in the side and pounded him flat into the ground. '_(Retract legs. Apply 40 radians of negative pitch. Negate forward momentum, transform to upward momentum. Get ready to land.)_' She drifted upward slightly, then landed perfectly facing away from him. Less than a second had passed.

Without a glance backward she walked off the field. A stunned Hayate cleared his throat then called out, "Winner by knockout, Haruno Sakura!"

oOo;

Maito Gai watched Kakashi's pink-haired so-called kunoichi charge Rock Lee with an internal smile. She was going to get thrown, he could see Lee preparing for it. Then there was a _snap-snap!-Snap!-Crunch!-THUD!_ and suddenly Lee was lying broken on the ground and Sakura was walking away from him without a second glance.

'_What was that?_' he thought frantically. '_He pulled her, she somehow spun backwards, breaking his wrist and then the bones in his arm, and then somehow _followed through_ with a twisting spinning kick to the side of his knee, snapping that, and finally another full follow-through somersault kick that hit him in the ribs. In less than a second. That wasn't taijutsu, that was impossible! She didn't even have the decency to be dizzy afterwards!_'

"Lee!" he shouted, jumping down to his broken student in a flash. '_Broken knee, ribs, shattered arm and wrist, and a concussion,_' he noted as he surveyed the injuries. He searched the stands for Kakashi, but he was nowhere to be glared at.

oOo;

Sasuke nodded to himself as Sakura walked back in the utter silence of the stadium. '_That _abomination_ isn't something that can be defended against with taijutsu, no matter how good you are. At least she's on my team,_' he thought with satisfaction. When the clapping hesitantly started he joined in along with Naruto.

oOo;

Orochimaru tried to replay the match he'd just seen in his head, but it just made no sense at all. One moment he was watching a silly and hopeless kunoichi and the next moment she transformed into a ball of pain. Not only were those moves not human, they weren't something that should be possible at all! '_Well, this is certainly a surprise,_' he thought. A glance over at Sarutobi showed that he was equally surprised.

"That is certainly an _interesting_ taijutsu style that girl has, don't you think?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Sarutobi. "Very interesting indeed..."

oOo;

"Hoki versus Uzumaki Naruto! Please come down and prepare for your match," Hayate announced.

Naruto hopped down and bowed slightly to Hoki when he was in position. Hoki returned the slight bow with a smile.

"Begin," Hayate shouted.

"Takigakure-ryu: Mizukiri no Yaiba!" Hoki summoned a cutting-water sword. He smirked at Naruto.

"Kage Bunshin," Naruto replied, being careful to add in the smoke using his Kage Kemuri. Three additional Narutos appeared, and they all drew their swords.

Hoki charged and cut through clone after clone. When he got to Naruto, Naruto dodged the strike slightly giving just enough resistance to feel like another clone, and seal-lessly used the kage kemuri to make it look like he'd been a clone too and had been dispersed.

Hoki's eyes widened, and he spun around searching for the real Naruto. With a smirk to himself, Naruto brought the pommel of his sword down hard on the back of Hoki's head and he collapsed.

"Winner by knockout, Uzumaki Naruto!" Hayate announced.

oOo;

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. '_Uzumaki Naruto is surprisingly graceful for such a young person, and shows a fine understanding of the basics of misdirection. I like him,_' he thought approvingly. '_He's still going to die, of course._'

oOo;

The crowd applauded lack-lusterly again, and muttering began to be heard. They'd come here to see fights, not impossible genjutsu or whatever it was that pink-haired girl had done, and not one-hit wins like the demon had gotten.

oOo;

"Hyuuga Hinata versus Sabaku No Gaara!" announced Hayate.

Hiashi looked down at his daughter with shock. She was using a _sword_! He could hear the murmurs of disapproval from the other Hyuuga elders already. '_Apparently she's going to need _remedial training,' he thought darkly.

oOo;

Hinata looked uncertainly at her opponent. '_What is that huge gourd on his back?_' she wondered. He seemed angry and only confirmed it when he spoke.

"I wanted to affirm my own existence, but with you all I can do is disprove yours," he told her dismissively. "Mother calls out for blood. Yours will be adequate. Barely."

Eyes narrowing, she drew her sword and centered herself. "Byakugan," she activated her sight. His gourd was full of sand that moved and flowed of its own accord. She began her Sword Concentration as she studied his tenketsu. Surprisingly the sand also seemed to have tenketsu and chakra.

The cork popped away from the gourd and the sand began pouring out. Hinata watched the chakra within the sand carefully. '_It seems to flow within the sand in the direction the sand will go a split second before the sand moves. I can use this,_' she thought with satisfaction.

Gaara stretched forth his hand contemptuously and intoned, "Sand Burial". She danced away from the sand, moving from where it would strike before it moved.

'_The best way to not get hurt is to not get hit,_' she told herself. She got with sword-reach of Gaara and closed one of the tenketsu on his arm, then watched with consternation as it was forced open again by a strange second type of chakra, the kind that was in his sand. She backed up quickly and tried to trace the path that chakra had taken.

oOo;

Sabaku no Gaara was annoyed, and a little disgusted at himself for not having killed the girl already. She was weak but fast, but that was no excuse. She had tried only a single attack with that sword of hers. It hadn't penetrated, and the twinge it caused went away almost as soon as it had appeared. Stretching forth his other hand, he called more of his sand into play. She couldn't dodge for much longer, certainly.

Fifteen minutes later, he was starting to wonder about that assertion. It was like she knew where he was going to strike before _he_ did! Very frustrating, and Mother's wailing was becoming impossible to ignore. Glaring at her, he concentrated harder on his sand.

oOo;

Hiashi's shock hadn't gone away, although his anger at his daughter had. She was somehow using the Gentle Fist with her blade. When she took out a senbon and charged it with chakra before flicking it to close another one of the boy's tenketsu, he even heard approval from the elders around him. It hadn't even needed to penetrate the boy's skin to close that point!

He heard an outright growl from the branch house's bench. Neji apparently didn't like being shown up by her. Glancing at his other daughter, Hanabi seemed almost as annoyed as Neji had sounded.

Yes, he was definitely going to have to treat his eldest daughter differently.

oOo;

She verified the path the chakra had taken by closing another tenketsu on Gaara with her Senbon Concentration. '_That chakra is forcing the tenketsu open too quickly. I'm going to have to close almost all of the tenketsu around his stomach, and then while they're being forced open I can try to disable him by closing the ones in his head._'

She threw several more senbon, closing up the tenketsu around his stomach, and as he stumbled a little in surprise she danced forward into sword-range and closed three more in his neck. The sand wouldn't let her blade cut through, but it didn't do much to stop the chakra she forced in.

Her attack cost her the initiative, however, and Gaara's sand grabbed her even as he began to waver. It quickly moved around her with crushing force, and she desperately threw one more senbon just before she was entombed.

Moments later the pressure stopped and the sand fell away. Gaara was lying face-up on the ground, his expression blank. As she watched, the chakra faded from his system. She had managed to close one of the primary lethal spots in his chakra system, the point that controlled heartbeat. That strange chakra was also fading from the boy's stomach. '_I... didn't mean to kill him. I'm pretty sure he was about to kill me, though. I guess... I guess that if it was him or me, I chose right by choosing me_,' she thought distractedly. She looked for Naruto-kun and found him looking at her with an approving gaze, and suddenly she felt much better.

"Ano, excuse me? I don't think he's going to fight anymore... I accidentally killed him," she told Hayate.

He looked at the body with surprise then leaned over to check the boy's pulse. Finding nothing, he announced, "Winner by the death of her opponent, Hyuuga Hinata!"

The crowd applauded wildly. This match hadn't been over in mere seconds, and someone had died!

oOo;

Orochimaru watched, stunned. '_My jinchurichi! Killed, by a few needles that didn't even penetrate his skin! This is a travesty!_' he thought angrily. Standing up suddenly he stiffly told Sarutobi, "I will take my leave now, and take my son's body back for funerary rites."

Sarutobi nodded at him, and offered up, "I grieve for your loss."

As he walked away, Orochimaru rolled his eyes. With the main piece in his plan destroyed, there was a lot to be reworked out.

oOo;

Kankuro shook Temari off angrily and stalked toward Hinata as she returned to the stands. "You killed him," he hissed. "I swear to you that someday I'll return the favor for him!"

Temari felt a little more ambivalent about her brother's death. He was her brother in much the same way that _that man_, the Kazekage, was her father. Thinking of him she looked around and as she caught sight of him he gave her the abort signal.

Temari grabbed Kankuro again saying, "It's time to go Kankuro, Father is leaving."

With one final glare he turned away from Hinata and stalked off.

oOo;

Hayate Gekko watched them cart off the body, and hoped that there wouldn't be a huge international incident over this. Once the stadium was ready he called out, "Mubi versus Tsuchi Kin, please prepare yourselves."

When they were ready he called out "Begin!"

oOo;

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched the match distractedly. Both seemed to be genjutsu users, and each was wearing themselves out fighting against illusions while they played hide-and-seek with each other. '_The Kazekage's son dying here is going to be a problem. To be safe, we're going to have to prepare for a war with Suna._' He sighed. '_I hate war._'

Sighing again, he motioned his ANBU over and begun giving orders.

oOo;

Sasuke waited impatiently for his match to begin. The last couple of matches had only shown him just how much better his own team was than the rest of the competitors aside from that sand user and the Hyuuga, they just dragged on and on and on. '_The genjutsu battle was marginally interesting, but then that pathetic excuse for a kunoichi had to go and hand her victory off by gloating before she finished it. And just as expected the Nara was a wash, Akado Yoroi drained his chakra dry._'

He activated his sharingan and looked his opponent over carefully as he took his place across from Sasuke. '_Rebreather... but why doesn't it cover his nose? I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?_' he thought.

"Begin," called out Hayate, and he charged as the Ame nin began to make handseals. He arrived in a flying kick as clones erupted around him, and instead of hitting his opponent in the chest like he had been planning Sasuke hit him in the face as he started to drop into the ground. His sharingan caught every detail of the man's head snapping back, his obvious unconsciousness, and his sinking into the ground. The clones around him dispersed without ever taking action.

Hayate and Sasuke stared morbidly at the ground where the Ame nin had sunk, and ten minutes later the match was called in Sasuke's favor.

oOo;

Hayate Gekko cleared his throat and then announced, "The second tier will be three matches: Haruno Sakura versus Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata versus Mubi, and Akado Yoroi versus Uchiha Sasuke. There will be a fifteen minute recess before the matches begin."

As the crowd milled about the Suna and Oto ninja that had infiltrated the stadium slowly exfiltrated again. War might be happening soon, very soon, but it wasn't going to be today.


	7. Chapter 6

Naruto considered his opponent carefully as he waited for the match to begin. '_Sakura is going to use her __undōryō henkan no jutsu if I get too close. Those poisoned makibishi sounded horrible too. Hm... momentum transformation... that probably requires momentum. Yes, that might work,_' he thought to himself, finishing with a nod.

As Hayate shouted, "Begin!" he flashed Sakura-san a smile. She clapped her hands together as he formed a ram seal, and as she began running towards him several kage bunshin formed around him.

He hopped back a bit and formed a second wave as she plowed into the first set. His clones made no aggressive moves, only blocking and trying to soak up as much of her momentum as possible. '_I wonder if she realizes what I'm doing?_' he wondered to himself. '_Momentum transformation requires momentum to work, which is why she ran at me. Each time she hits a clone and the clone doesn't hit or push back it absorbs some of her momentum._'

oOo;

Sakura tried not to grind her teeth as she realized what Naruto was doing. '_I got overconfident and of course Naruto saw the weakness of my technique probably as soon as I used it in his presence. He shouldn't be this smart, it isn't fair!_' she thought with an internal whine.

She dispelled two more of his clones as he made a third and then a fourth wave, and then glared at him as he made a fifth wave. As he grinned and they spread out in a circle around her, she tossed her poisoned makibishi on the ground around her.

'_Take _that_, Naruto!_' she thought with a bit of satisfaction. She couldn't keep a challenging grin from appearing on her face.

oOo;

'_And that's it. I had been worried that she would throw one of those at me, but now...,_' he smirked back at her as one of his clones carefully picked up one of the makibishi and tossed it _near_ her.

Her eyes widened as another clone picked up a second one and said, "We don't have to miss, you know."

He felt bad for her. She obviously hadn't been expecting him to use her own trap against her, and she still hadn't thought of the most important source of momentum she had available.

She closed her eyes, sighed, then with a bitter smile she called out, "Proctor, I forfeit."

Hayate called out, "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto by forfeit!"

As his clones helped her gather up the makibishi, he stepped closer to her and whispered, "Sakura-san, how much momentum do you get from gravity?"

Her utterly surprised expression turned slowly into a brilliant smile, and she nodded in return.

oOo;

Sasuke watched as Naruto won yet again in the least flashy possible manner. '_He obviously saw something that I didn't, she didn't really even get a chance to use that _horrible_ jutsu on him._' he thought. '_The annoying thing is that he did it without even bragging, and whatever he said to her at the end got her smiling like she'd won instead of losing._'

oOo;

Hyuuga Hinata passed Naruto-kun on her way down to the arena and he called out to her, "Good luck, Hinata-chan!" She couldn't help but smile in return.

Her opponent this time was a genjutsu user, Mubi. '_It's unfortunate that he got this far simply to come up against my byakugan. Although to be fair Tsuchi Kin beat him before she started bragging._'

As Hayate started the match, she began her Senbon Concentration. Mubi immediately called out, "Oboro Bunshin no Jutsu" and the area around her filled with clones. '_Clones without tenketsu,_' she noted to herself.

Envisioning a greatly-expanded eight trigrams seal, she called out, "You are within the field of my divination! Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Senbon!"

oOo;

Hyuuga Hiashi sat back feeling stunned. '_There it is, the true proof of ranged Gentle Fist. How has she been able to hide this from me? Where did she learn it?_'

The elders around him seemed similarly stunned, and Hanabi was leaning forward staring at her sister in almost admiration. From the branch house's bench, however, Neji was muttering his disapproval.

oOo;

As the senbon disabled the tenketsu she frowned to herself. Three had missed their targets, though one of those had hit a nearby supplemental tenketsu that had almost as great an effect as the one she had targeted. '_I need more throwing practise,_' she noted.

Mubi fell to the ground, unable to stand. She stalked towards him, and as he started to speak, she struck.

"Proctor, I for..." he slumped to the ground, unconscious from the final Gentle Fist strike.

"Winner by knockout, Hyuuga Hinata!" Hayate called out.

oOo;

"Uchiha Sasuke versus Akado Yoroi, begin!" yelled Hayate.

'_He beat Nara Shikamaru by draining his chakra in his last match. I'll have to be careful not to let him touch me very much,_' Sasuke thought as he activated his sharingan.

He watched Akado come towards him slowly, almost lazily in the sight of his sharingan. '_Kakashi-sensei's speed training really helped, this trash is nowhere fast enough to beat me,_' he thought. As he came within range, Sasuke spun into a full-circle reverse roundhouse kick and readied a Great Fireball while his back was to the enemy. As expected, his kick was evaded, and as Akado reached out to drain his chakra Sasuke released the fireball into his enemy's unsuspecting face.

He watched as Akado sprawled backwards in the new crater, clothing smoking, and then jumped forward with an axe stomp to Akado's stomach.

As Hayate called the match he turned away in contempt. '_He was hardly worth my time,_' he thought with disgust.

oOo;

"The three tier three matches will be as follows: firstly Hyuuga Hinata versus Uzumaki Naruto, secondly Uchiha Sasuke versus Hyuuga Hinata, and lastly Uchiha Sasuke versus Uzumaki Naruto," Hayate addressed the stadium. "There will be another fifteen-minute break before the tier three matches begin."

Naruto noted with a little irritation that not once throughout the entire test had he been announced first. Even against ninja from other villages he was still announced second. '_I'm almost certain that if it were possible to announce me winning like that that Hayate would do that too. More intolerance, don't they know that I'm supposed to be protecting them by holding the nine-tails? That I and Minato thought that I.. um, Naruto would be a hero? That he should have been a hero? That they might have forced him to become the demon they treated him as?_' he thought resignedly.

'_I wanted to be the Hokage, even in my new life Naruto wanted to be the Hokage, but do they really deserve to have me lead them? Maybe I've sacrificed too much of my life, in both lives, already,_' he thought. '_I'll have to think about this after the test is over, especially if I don't get promoted. I don't know how much I want to continue to deal with this body, and if I stay I'll have to deal with it daily._' He sighed to himself. '_I really hate feeling like this, I feel like I'm betraying my son._'

oOo;

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto found himself facing Hinata-chan. Bowing to each other, they both drew their swords and began Sword Concentration.

"Hyuuga Hinata versus Uzumaki Naruto, begin!" shouted Hayate.

They clashed together, a spinning maelstrom against an implacable wall. They had been training together for two weeks that due to the kage bunshin stretched into months, and they each knew the counters to the others' moves. Hinata's sword style was akin to her Gentle Fist style, mostly stationary and defensive, while Naruto's style was of the whirlpool, always spinning and twisting around. His stance was lower than hers, as the reverse grip he used favored lower strikes.

They each probed the defenses of the other and found themselves lost in the pleasure of training together again, smiles growing on their faces and brightening with each foiled feint, each blocked swing, each slipped thrust.

oOo;

Cat watched the sword match with eyes narrowed behind her mask. '_I.. I _know_ that style!_' she thought with shock. '_I remember seeing it when I went into the Academy. And the one that used it was named... Uzumaki Kushina! Is it coincidence that Uzumaki Naruto knows it now? Is it...,_' and here her thoughts faltered a bit as she looked at the Yondaime's face carved into mountain above. '_Is it coincidence that he looks just like Kushina's husband? No... how can this be? I've watched as people have treated him like trash, while they spit on him and overcharged him, and I've stood back and never said a word! What have I done? What have _we_ done?_'

As the sword-match continued, her resolve hardened. '_This is unacceptable. Things _will_ change!_' she vowed.

Unbeknownst to her several other people were having similar thoughts. There weren't many, but some few ninja recognized that sword style.

oOo;

With just a glance they agreed to move the power level up a bit. Breaking away from each other, they each summoned several kage bunshin. '_Naruto-kun has summoned more than me again,_' Hinata noted with a small frown. '_I can fix that!_'

She and her three clones stood back-to-back in a fluid, practiced move as Naruto and his clones all jumped back. With a single choral intonation, four voices called out, "Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Senbon!"

There was no area safe from her senbon, and his clones melted away.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hanabi watched her sister and Naruto in awe. Both of them had swords like huge tenketsu, and both of them were really, really good with them. And both of them knew a solid clone technique, even the clones had chakra and tenketsu!

She glared at her father as a thought occurred to her. "Otou-sama, why have I not been taught like Hinata-sama has been? When were you going to show me how to do _that_?" she asked.

Her glare sharpened as her father shifted uncomfortably and the elders looked away.

oOo;

Naruto grinned at Hinata-chan as he summoned more clones, each of them quickly closing in and engaging her clones in swordplay before she could throw her senbon again. The crowd and the stadium had long ago melted away from their awareness, each was now concentrated fully on the other as they had been for months of the eternal summer day.

Ignoring his clones and their respective melees for the moment, he spun forward and Hinata-chan slapped his slash into the ground with the tip of her own blade. He caught her return strike on the guard of his sword, and when she flicked a senbon at him with her off hand he quickly pulsed his chakra to reopen the tenketsu she had closed.

The memories from his three clones being popped by similar off hand senbon strikes floated in his awareness and a quick look around verified that he was in the process of being surrounded. With another whirl he pumped more chakra into his blade, letting it leak out in a spray around him. The chakra didn't do anything at all to Hinata-chan, but it was enough to disrupt and dispel her clones. In return he got several senbon in his back even as she backed away from him.

oOo;

Hinata watched as Naruto-kun disrupted her clones with a wave of unformed chakra, flicking senbon into his back when he turned away from her during his spin. '_Any other opponent would be completely disabled by those tenketsu being closed, except perhaps that Sabaku no Gaara,_' she thought. '_Against Naruto-kun all I can do is wear myself out. He can counter everything I can do and he already knows all my tricks._' With an internal giggle she thought, '_No, to be more honest he doesn't just know them, he helped me teach myself everything I know now except the original Gentle Fist. I owe him everything else._'

A quick scan of her clan's section of the bleachers revealed Neji-kun glaring at her, Hanabi-chan glaring at her father, and several of the elders and most of the rest of the clan looking at her with varying amounts of shock. '_It looks like this fight accomplished what we wanted it to. I can't win against Naruto-kun, so it's best to stop now so that I'm not worn out for my next match,_' she thought. With a somewhat-apologetic glance at Naruto-kun, she lowered her guard and stepped away from him, and he nodded to her as he also disengaged.

"Proctor, I forfeit," she said to Hayate in a confident voice.

Hayate looked at her and then at Naruto-kun, and then announced with a frown, "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto by forfeit!"

oOo;

Uchiha Sasuke frowned to himself. '_I can say for certain that Naruto isn't dead-last anymore. That sword style he's picked up is deadly-looking and he's a lot better at it than just a month of study from scrolls would suggest. He's not loud, obnoxious, or disrespectful anymore. He beat both Sakura and Hinata without really hurting them. He even countered that _abomination_ of a jutsu that Sakura used!_' he thought with a mixture of satisfaction and disgruntlement.

He made his way down to the stadium floor when his next match was announced. Hyuuga Hinata was waiting for him, her sword sheathed and her byakugan active. As the proctor began the match he activated his own sharingan, and caught a flicker in the air just before his left hand was pierced by a senbon. It immediately went lax with a dull ache.

'_That was stupid of me,_' he snarled to himself. '_I should have had my sharingan active before the match started, I would have been able to see and avoid that! She's clever to disable my hand, now I can't form any hand seals._'

He almost lazily avoided the next three senbon she sent his way while he closed the distance to her. His return volley of kunai was avoided equally easily, and he had to acknowledge to himself that her byakugan wasn't completely useless. '_Going up against a Hyuuga in taijutsu is suicide, but she almost certainly has more senbon than I have kunai and waiting for her to score a hit is just as bad or worse,_' he thought. '_I can't let myself be hit again._'

oOo;

Hinata hid a smirk as Sasuke approached her. '_That lucky shot at the beginning of the match has won it for me, I think. Waiting until the match had actually started to invoke his sharingan was a little shortsighted of him. Without hand seals he won't be able to use his fire jutsu on me, and that means that I'm more effective at range than he is,_' she diverted her attention as she dodged a couple of kunai. '_Okay, he's not totally ineffective at range. But now he's too close, and he'll never know what hit him!_'

She formed her hand seals, calling forth two kage bunshin. One appeared next to her, the other _behind_ Sasuke. Her chakra reserves were low, but the only chakra-intensive jutsu she knew was the kage bunshin, so she wasn't worried. Her Sword Concentration and Senbon Concentration took almost no chakra to use, they were primarily control-intensive.

Taking another double-handful of senbon, she and the clone next to her called out, "Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Senbon!" As he twisted and dodged the senbon, the clone behind him released her senbon silently and singly, aiming at his legs and especially the tenketsu in his ankles.

oOo;

He gladly soaked up the kage bunshin jutsu when she displayed it to his sharingan. Her senbon techniques were a little interesting but after everything were just multiple-projectile throws. The important part was the precision her chakra sight gave her, and just like the Gentle Fist he found his eyes unable to really copy her new technique.

Avoiding two waves of two senbon was easy, but avoiding the following waves of four, eight, and sixteen senbon respectively was much more difficult. That they were coming from two distinct angles didn't make it any easier, but his sharingan was able to track every incoming projectile and he managed to slip past them all.

The pain and numbness in his right ankle just as he was putting all his weight on that foot was unexpected and unwelcome. As his leg failed under him, a quick glance behind him showed another of her clones. '_She must've summoned more than one of them when she summoned the first in front of me. I didn't realize that she had so much control over where they appeared,_' he thought as he collapsed.

With no seals and no mobility, he was forced into a decision that rankled even as he made it. "Proctor, I yield," he said disgustedly.

"Winner, Hyuuga Hinata by forfeit!" announced Hayate.

He was somewhat grateful when she came up to him after the match was called and reversed the points she had closed.

oOo;

Naruto gave Hinata-chan a congratulatory smile as she bounced happily off the field. Her return smile did things to him that he resolutely put out of his attention. He made his way down past her to the stadium floor.

'_Sasuke-kun really deserves to win one of these matches,_' he thought as he descended. '_I've already won one, as has Hinata-chan, so it's only fair. Besides, none of the abilities I've shown or that I dare to show at this point could really defeat his fire jutsu. I'm pretty certain that the Hokage would have a heart attack if I used my chakra chains, or my barrier, or my chain seals, or really anything at all besides what I've already shown. It's probably best if I don't let Sasuke-kun know that I have anything hidden in reserve, though. He wouldn't take it well, not from the 'dead-last' of the Academy._'

With his strategy firmly in mind, Naruto affixed a smirk to his face and waited for the proctor to start the final match.

oOo;

Uchiha Sasuke waited impatiently for the proctor to call the start of the match. He'd learned his lesson, his sharingan was already activated and whirling away as he observed Naruto.

"Final match, Uchiha Sasuke versus Uzumaki Naruto. Begin!" announced Hayate.

Sasuke settled into a basic tiger stance and with several quickly formed seals and a muttered "hibana no haaku" channeled lightning chakra into his hands. '_Sure, it's not the chidori, but sparking hands have almost none of the disadvantages that the chidori has. It will be strong enough to disrupt Naruto's clones with the slightest touch and that will be good enough for now,_' he thought as he watched Naruto form several clones in response. They spread out as they approached him and as they came into optimal range he sprang forward into a mix of the first and third claw forms.

As he disrupted the clones he noted, '_I'm faster than he is. Good. Kakashi-sensei was right, speed really is everything during a fight._' Spinning into a high reverse crescent kick he formed more seals as yet another of Naruto's clones dispersed. "Katon: endan," he said quietly, then fired the flame bullet at Naruto himself. His eyes narrowed as he saw Naruto watch the bullet coming towards him with no stress, no tensing of muscles, and only after a clone had already jumped into the way did Naruto move to avoid the already-blocked attack. '_I don't think anyone else would have, could have noticed that. Can he communicate with his clones silently?_' he thought.

Deciding to test his hypothesis, he fired several more flame bullets as Naruto retreated towards the nearby lightly-wooded area. Each time he did, one of Naruto's clones would intercept and only _then_ would Naruto himself dodge. '_There were no hand signals, no glances, in two cases there wasn't even line-of-sight!_' he thought incredulously. '_So why is he pretending to dodge when he knows that there isn't any danger beforehand? Why does it seem like every time I really look at Naruto recently I'm surprised?_'

Channeling more chakra, he formed the handsigns and torched the tree Naruto had dodged behind with a whispered, "Katon: goukyakuu." This time Naruto actually _did_ dodge with intent.

"What's the matter, Naruto?" he called tauntingly to the blonde. "Can't you do anything besides dodge and run away?"

"It's better than getting zapped and fried!" Naruto called back from behind another tree. He dodged away again when Sasuke torched it as well.

Sasuke frowned as a thought occurred to him. '_It was a taunt, but it's still true. All he's done so far is make clones and dodge. Is he waiting for me to run out of chakra? That must be it, he won't run out from just a few clones, I've seen him make hundreds of the things before! I'm going to have to pin him down to beat him._'

oOo;

Sakura watched eagerly as Sasuke-kun displayed his prowess against Naruto. Each time a clone fell the crowd cheered, and the two torched trees had each earned their own roar of approval. '_At this rate there's no way Sasuke-kun can't win!_' she thought excitedly. Then the guilt surfaced, and she thought ashamedly, '_Not that I want Naruto to lose. I don't! Really! (I do!) I just want Sasuke-kun to win more than Naruto._'

The crowd's applause drew her attention back to the fight below, and Inner Sakura's declaration was forgotten.

oOo;

Sasuke reapplied his sparking hands jutsu, and then rushed at Naruto. The clones that got in his way were disrupted without slowing him down in the slightest, and he was within melee range within seconds.

Tiger style taijutsu was his favorite out of all the styles that Kakashi-sensei had shown him. His grin was wide, and he could almost imagine having a tiger's teeth as he settled himself into the form's mindset. He leapt at Naruto with both hands outstretched in claw form seven, leading with a swift kick and then swiping with both lightning chakra-enhanced hands. Naruto dodged the kick with a spinning motion, but Sasuke caught him with the edge of one of his hands and Naruto spasmed as the lightning chakra shocked him.

Sasuke swept into claw form three as Naruto shakily summoned more clones with a seal, and when Sasuke hit him again he flickered and then was disrupted. '_A clone? No, not until just before I hit him. One of his clones substituted with him, and it managed to substitute itself into exactly the same position, with exactly the same expression! When did he get smart? This is getting ridiculous,_' he thought as he looked for the real Naruto.

The clones all looked exactly the same, just like always. With a small internal sigh, he began disrupting them systematically. Twice more he caught the telltale flicker as one of Naruto's clones replaced him just before a strike. The last time both were in his field of view, and he saw that not only was the clone substituted into Naruto's exact position, but that Naruto was also substituted into the clone's exact position. His eyes didn't catch any special technique, just a sealless version of the basic substitution technique.

'_So it isn't even a particularly special technique... it must all be chakra control, but he used to have the worst control of Team 7. Now he's doing things that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do. How did he get so good so quickly? I could use my sharingan to copy his kenjutsu, but I couldn't have learned it that way from a scroll, and the sharingan does nothing to help my control. Whatever learning technique he has is something I've never heard of before,_' he thought. '_Maybe he has some kind of chakra control bloodline limit?_'

When he finally caught Naruto with another hand strike Naruto called to the proctor, "Proctor, I forfeit."

Sasuke was surprised at the quickly-hidden glee the proctor showed to his sharingan as he announced, "Winner by forfeit, Uchiha Sasuke!" The loud roaring of the crowd surprised him further still.

oOo;

Hatake Kakashi heard a loud roar from the stadium in the distance and looked away from the memorial stone and thought, '_Ah, it must be Sasuke-kun's match. I should go show my support for my precious soon-to-be-chuunin._' With that thought in mind, he activated a shunshin.

When he arrived at the stadium there was nobody fighting. The citizens of Konoha were in the process of leaving, and when he caught up to Gai and asked him about the matches all he got was a cold glare that was totally unlike anything he'd ever experienced from the man before.


	8. Chapter 7

Uzumaki Naruto Kushina meditated whilst sitting on her bed in her apartment. '_Too much happened all at once. I had to ignore things, put them off until later... but now it's finally later._' With a sealless henge, she shifted into a cute red fox. '_I didn't really know what was happening at first with having two forms, but having a fox form as well? Kyuubi is behind this, obviously. I'm going to have to see if I can commune with it somehow within my seal._'

Shifting back to his male form, he pulled up his shirt and concentrated just enough chakra into the seal for it to become visible. '_I'm going to have to decode this, as well. It's obviously the Shiki Fuujin, which means that my dear Minato sacrificed himself for our son. So I know how he died, but how did I... Uzumaki Kushina die? Naruto was never told anything about me... her, and so I can't just start asking for her by name._' She shifted back to her female form.

With a glower she continued thinking, '_What is happening with Sarutobi? I can't believe that he doesn't know about Naruto's heritage, and that means that all the abuse that Naruto had while growing up and the ignorance of his heritage is on purpose._'

'_Naruto had the same dream that I did, becoming Hokage. I still want to more than ever. How could I not, when it's been my one dream through two lifetimes?_' she thought, mind drifting over her desires and how they came to be. '_Wait. No._'

She cast her mind amongst her memories of both Naruto and Kushina, back to the time that she made up her mind in each life. Each time it had been during a talk with Sarutobi Hiruzen. '_The first time I ended up marrying the actual Hokage. This time, with how the whole village looks at me I simply don't know if it's possible to become Hokage regardless of who my father was. But in each case, the words of encouragement from Sarutobi were identical._'

She sighed to herself. '_More to be questioned. So, on to the second problem. I'm simply not comfortable as a male, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to acclimate myself to it. So far the longer I've stayed male the worse the dissonance between what I _am_ and what I _feel_ gets. Compared to being male becoming a fox is positively wonderful._'

She shook herself slightly, becoming a fox again. '_Third problem. I need to find a way to learn fuuinjutsu. I can't just show up knowing everything there is to know without being thrown into T&I's hands for a long, long time, and until I chat with the fox I won't know why I'm here like _this_._'

She curled up on the bed, jaw on her paws, looking at her tail. '_Fourth problem. My education was sabotaged in this lifetime. No, not just education, my entire life has been full of sabotage. Is being on Kakashi Hatake's team an accident? It's only blindingly obvious that he dislikes me, which should be ludicrous since he was on Minato's team. I need to figure out why._'

She closed her eyes. Being a fox was relaxing. '_At least becoming chuunin will make finding out what's happening easier_,' she thought as she drifted into slumber.

oOo;

"...and so we're all agreed that Uchiha Sasuke has what it takes to be chuunin?" asked Sarutobi Hiruzen. The answering nods from all the jounin and council heads sealed the decision. "Very well."

The final name on the list was a lot more... contentious. He glanced around before he began, noting that the majority of the ninja council-members looked uncomfortable and all the civilian council-members looked aggressive. With a sigh he began. "Uzumaki Naruto finished the third test, also winning three times and losing once. He also got approving reviews from the Kazekage for his mastery of deception in combat."

Shimura Danzou was the first to speak, "I nominate Uzumaki Naruto to the position of chuunin, he is quite a bit more competent than I was led to believe from his Academy reviews and the reports from Team 7."

Most of the council looked at him in surprise, and then looked at Hatake Kakashi waiting for him to second the nomination. Instead of paying attention, he was engrossed in his little orange book. Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help it, he found himself cradling his forehead with his palm. The silence stretched on as the other jounin-sensei looked at Hatake with disbelief that turned to anger when he let out a small giggle as he turned a page.

Clearing his throat, the Hokage asked, "Am I to assume from your silence that you don't care to comment on this nomination, Hatake?"

Hearing his name Hatake looked up from his book. Seeing everyone looking at him he asked, "...I'm sorry, you say something?" When he saw the Hokage glaring at him he shrugged in response.

Sarutobi Hiruzen closed his eyes, wincing internally. '_With that kind of support, Naruto will never advance beyond Genin. When I originally assigned Naruto to his team I was expecting Hatake to actually care about his sensei's child_,' he thought. '_I'm sorry, Naruto. I've failed you yet again without your knowledge._' He looked over at Shimura Danzou, who looked enraged at the lack of support his nomination had received.

With one last sigh, he closed the file before him.

oOo;

Cat looked down on the council meeting, her thoughts awhirl with rage and shame. '_Just yesterday morning I would have been happy, even ecstatic, with this result. Now it seems like following Hatake's guide and leaving ANBU might be for the best. I wonder if I might not be able to apprentice Uzumaki Naruto myself..._'

With that in mind, she decided that she and the Hokage were going to be having a _meeting_ when her shift was over.

oOo;

Nagato looked up from the lecture he was giving Tobi in shock. "W-what?" he stuttered. Tobi seemed similarly shocked.

Zetsu took a small step away from them, and repeated themselves, "Gaara no Sabaku _the ichibi_ died yesterday during the chuunin exam finals _died in Konoha_."

Both Nagato and Zetsu looked to Tobi as he started chuckling. "My plan... the Eye of the Moon... ruined!" His chuckling got louder.

Suddenly he looked at them both and hissed, "I needed _all nine_ of the bijuu! Now I have to wait, and there isn't any need for Akatsuki anymore..."

There wasn't time enough to retreat.

oOo;

Uzumaki Naruto Kushina looked around. She was in some kind of a sewer, and there was a glow coming from ahead. Walking towards it, she came to a room with bars, with the Shiki Fuujin displayed prominently. Just beyond the bars stood the nine-tails. It seemed to be regarding her without any hostility, and when it spoke its voice was surprisingly gentle.

"Kushina-sama, welcome to my abode," it said to her.

"Ano..," she wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but... "Hello there. Do you have something you would prefer for me to call you, other than 'nine-tails'? Also... '-sama'?"

"You can call me Kurama, Kushina-sama. And how else would I address the single most important existence in my world?" it answered her.

"You're the reason I'm here again, aren't you. And the reason I have my old body and the body of a fox? Why?" she asked.

"You're here because I brought you back. You're the most important thing in my existence, Kushina-sama. From now on, I'll _always_ bring you back. To be without you for the last several years was unpleasant," it confessed.

The directness surprised her, but not as much as the message. "A-always? You're going to bring me back, for-forever?" she stuttered slightly. When Kurama nodded to her, she asked, "How.. how did I die? What happened to me after the last thing I remember?"

Kurama looked down, and then back to her face and admitted, "I killed you while I was being sealed away. I wasn't fully under my own control when it happened. I couldn't restore anything that happened to you after I wasn't sealed in you anymore. I apologize, I didn't mean to ruin your happiness."

Eyes wide she stepped towards the cage. "You really mean that, don't you? I really _am_ the most important thing in your life? And you r-really will... bring me back. Forever," she stated with some awe in her voice. She took another step forward, easily within Kurama's reach. When it made no move towards her, she hesitantly reached out and petted its nearest paw. The fur was smooth and the energy within tingled.

It made a low rumbling noise that was warm and comforting. She looked up at it and asked, "So why a fox form? Are you.. ano... do you want me to be your... your mate?" She couldn't help the blush that formed when she asked.

Kurama chuckled at her, and shook its head. "No, Kushina-sama, I'm not like that. Gendered, I mean. Bijuu are singular entities, we don't need or want to breed. You not being with me is more like a... hole in my existence. The fox form is to give you more options when you get the fox summoning contract."

She blinked in further surprise. Summoning contracts were incredibly rare. "You have the contract? Here?" she asked.

It shook its head again. "No, Kushina-sama. I know where it lies, and how to get there," it answered. As it explained how and where to find the contract, she found herself leaning against it fully within the seal. They ended up talking until she fell asleep.

Kurama smiled at the girl curled up against it. This was better even than just leaning against the bars. Feeling content, it closed its eyes as well.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hinata stepped confidently into the room and stared impassively at the elders of her clan. Her father was looking at her with approval for the first time in her memory, and the elders seemed uncharacteristically restlessly eager.

"Daughter," her father said, "I as head of the Hyuuga clan, and all of the elders, wish to know where you learned the surprising skills you showcased for us in the exams today."

She sighed to herself. '_The elders all _hate_ Naruto-kun, and so they won't like this at all. I don't really care anymore, though. I'm not giving him up!_' she thought with determination.

"Uzumaki Naruto helped me learn this, father. You know that already, you saw his sword in the exams, shining brightly just as mine did," she stated calmly, folding her arms.

The elders broke out in shouts as she watched, and it took nearly five minutes for them to calm down enough to pay attention to her again. Finally her father turned again to her after shooting the elders with a harsh glare. He stood and looked at her imperiously. "That boy is dangerous, daughter. I've told you several times to avoid him," he stated harshly.

With a rough gesture she cut him off. "_Fifteen days_, father," she spat.

He looked at her, nonplussed. She was being disrespectful to him and the nonsequitur was just as surprising.

"I trained with Uzumaki Naruto for _fifteen days_, and I learned what you saw. He's been called the most unpredictable ninja in Konoha, and it took him half a month to find a _completely new_ way of using our sight in combat when he can't even see for himself! And you want me to cut ties with him before I learn anything else?" she asked scornfully.

The elders looked at each other in surprise as her father slowly sat down. This time the murmurs were much more positive.

Smirking internally she added, "I'm sure any of the other clans would love to have his insight and help, so perhaps I _should_ stay away from him instead of being his friend." She was entirely unsuccessful at keeping the sarcasm from her voice. "He's already on the same team as Uchiha Sasuke..." she trailed off.

The Hyuuga Council erupted into argument as her father stared at her in surprise. She carefully schooled her expression and waited for the elders' verdict.

oOo;

As soon as she went off-duty, Uzuki Yuugao had made an appointment to see the Hokage. When the time came, she strode into his office and placed her ANBU mask on the desk.

The Hokage looked up at her in surprise as she said, "I would like to resign from ANBU, and instead take an apprentice."

He closed the file he had been reviewing. "And who would this apprentice be, that would pull you away from ANBU?" queried the Hokage.

"I would like to apprentice Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage-sama. His kenjutsu was exemplary, and I wish to help him hone it further," she explained.

"You know the Council won't like this, Uzuki-san. Are you certain that this is what you wish to do?" the Hokage asked her.

A simple nod was all she gave in return.

"I see. Perhaps this would be for the best. Naruto will not be promoted at this time, although both his teammates will be, so perhaps it would be better for him to be assigned a new sensei," the Hokage mused, staring at her. With sudden conviction, he nodded and said, "Uzuki Yuugao, I assign you to be Uzumaki Naruto's new jounin-sensei, and to help train him in everything that a ninja should know. Do you accept this assignment?"

With a smile she answered, "Yes, Hokage-sama"

oOo;

Gekkou Hayate dropped his chopsticks as he processed what his girlfriend had just told him. "You _what?_" he yelled. "You left ANBU for _him_?" he screeched.

Uzuki Yuugao sighed. Explaining this would take some time, and she hadn't expected her boyfriend to be quite so histrionic about the issue.

oOo;

Uzumaki Naruto Kushina stretched as she awoke, shook the kinks out of her back and tail, then transformed into her human self. The sun was bright in the morning, and today was the day that the chuunin promotions would be announced. She went through her morning ablutions with a spring in her step.

'_Attaining chuunin rank will let me choose my own missions. It shouldn't take long for one to become available that will lead me near the resting place of the fox summoning contract_,' she thought happily. '_Now I just need to find a way to "learn" fuuinjutsu, and I'll be all set until I can figure out how to handle needing to be male in public. Maybe I can find enough about basic sealing to become a prodigy, like I did with my kenjutsu?_'

Shaking her head slightly she thought, '_No, too many sudden prodigal achievements on my part is a direct path to T&I. I'm going to have to find a teacher_.'

She answered her apartment door when she heard a light knocking, being careful to transform first into male form. To his surprise it was Hinata knocking. "You're early today, Hinata-chan," he noted with a smile. "Are you that eager to get to the promotion ceremony?" When she looked down with a frown his expression mirrored hers, and he silently moved aside to let her enter.

"Ano...," she tapered off before she even really started talking, poking her index fingers together. With a slightly exasperated smile, he waited for her to talk about whatever was bothering her.

"Ah...," she continued to poke her fingers together, seemingly finding them fascinating. "I made a tiny mistake last night, Naruto-kun. With my clan. They kind of want me to...," she trailed off again with a blush.

"Hinata-chan," he spoke softly, "it's okay. I'm sure that whatever happened wasn't that bad, really."

With a sigh and slightly-slumped shoulders Hinata said, "I kind of provoked my clan into considering a betrothal contract between the Hyuuga and the Uzumaki clans. But it wasn't really all my fault! They wanted me to stop meeting you, and you helped me so much and it's been only half a month and so I pointed out that if you could help this much with only half a month that you could do a lot more with more time, and now they want you to marry into the clan!" She stopped her frantic explanations, temporarily out of breath.

Naruto blinked at her as he processed what she had just told him. '_A... a betrothal contract? Hiashi isn't bad-looking, but he's a bit old for me. More importantly, would I really want to become Hinata-chan's stepmother? That would be really, really awkward in our training sessions, and I'm not sure how they would explain it when I have to stay male... oh. No. No, they wouldn't be engaging me to Hiashi, would they? They don't know about me... Hinata-chan means that they're wanting me to marry her. Isn't she the heir-apparent of the Hyuuga clan?_'

He cleared his throat and asked her, "Aren't you the clan heir? They really want you to marry me?"

She nodded, still unable to meet his eyes. "Either me or my younger sister Hanabi, yes," she answered, "or _both_ of us. The elders want to make sure that you help us as much as possible, Naruto-kun. The Hyuuga clan has been wishing for a way to use the Gentle Fist at range for generations, and you helped me find a way to do it in only fifteen days."

'_Both. Right. Those elders aren't just jerks that hate me, they're perverts too. That's a good point, though_,' he thought. "Hinata-chan, the elders in your clan hate me. I think your father does, too," he pointed out. "They can't be serious about this."

"They are, though. They want you to help train Hanabi-chan along with me, and Neji-kun too. They even want me to offer you a house in our district to live in," she explained to him.

Transforming into her female form with another sealless henge, Kushina asked Hinata-chan, "And what about this? I don't want to try to explain this to anyone else, dattebane!"

Hinata-chan blinked at her, and pointed out, "You never really explained it to me, you know. Isn't it just a bloodline limit? Even if it is, can't you just not use it if you don't want people to know?"

Kushina sighed to herself. '_I'm going to have to explain more than I really want to here, aren't I?_' she asked herself. "It's not that simple," she answered. "I have a problem that I haven't talked about to anyone before, and this form helps me with it."

"A problem? A problem that this helps with?" echoed Hinata-chan. "How can this help with a problem?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure how to explain it, Hinata-chan. For a while now I've been... uncomfortable as a boy. It's like my whole body is just wrong. When I turn into a girl I just feel more relaxed and comfortable," she explained.

Hinata-chan closed her eyes and then with a very tiny voice asked, "So... does this mean you don't like girls?"

Kushina blinked at the unexpected twist in the conversation. '_Why would she ask me about.. oh, right_,' she thought, feeling disgust at herself for not noticing earlier. '_She has a crush on me, on Naruto. How can I answer a question like this? I don't know what I like anymore! It doesn't help that everyone is so young. I'm going to have to think this through later and figure out what I can do to make things less awkward_.'

With a sigh, she answered, "I simply don't know right now, Hinata-chan. Everything is confused." Seeing Hinata-chan tense up, she quickly stepped forward and enfolded her in a hug. "I'm not saying that I don't like you! I'm not rejecting the idea of a betrothal, either. Let me have some time to figure things out myself before I have to make any decisions, okay?" she asked.

Hinata-chan relaxed into the hug, nodding into her shoulder. "My father wanted me to tell you something else, too," she almost whispered. "He was at the shinobi council meeting where the chuunin promotions were decided. You... they didn't decide to promote you, Naruto-chan. He told me that your jounin-sensei didn't support you when you were nominated!"

Kushina closed her eyes, expecting to have to subdue a rage that never came. '_I wish I could say that I was really surprised_,' she thought, leaning into Hinata-chan. '_Kakashi has been blatantly favoritist since team 7 was formed, why should he stop now?_'

"It's okay, Hinata-chan. I can always wait for the next exams, that's only six months away. Maybe I'll be able to join a different team, too," she said with hollow enthusiasm. "If all else fails I can just wait until I've completed enough missions to earn it the long way."

'_Perhaps a distraction is in order_,' she thought. She guided Hinata-chan to the table, and then sat next to her. "So, you mentioned something about helping you with your Gentle Fist?"

oOo;

The chuunin promotion ceremony had been a little boring for having so much pomp attached to it. Naruto had cheered when Hinata-chan got her promotion, and again for Sasuke-kun, and also for Sakura. Ignoring the smirks of the civilians when his name wasn't called had been easy thanks to the forewarning he'd gotten, though he had noted that the Hyuuga seemed to be split between the smirks and a hidden, smouldering anger at Kakashi.

Hinata-chan had introduced him to her father, Hyuuga Hiashi, and her younger sister Hanabi. They had both seemed happy to meet him, which had made him uncomfortably aware of the proposed alliance and betrothal contract. He had been thankfully able to extricate himself from the awkward impending conversation when the Hokage had summoned him.

As he walked into the Hokage's office the other person standing at attention turned toward him with a smile. She had dark hair, dark brown eyes, and a flowing outfit with a sword strapped to her back. '_I could swear that I've seen that hair before... Yuugao-chan? I remember her begging me to teach her kenjutsu when she entered the academy. She looks like she's done well for herself_.'

Before he could speak, she introduced herself. "Hello, Naruto. My name is Uzuki Yuugao, and I'm going to be your new jounin-sensei. The Hokage has allowed me to take an apprentice rather than a whole team, and your kenjutsu was very impressive. Since I also focus on kenjutsu, I'll be helping you hone your skills with your blade," she said with a smile. Her voice was gentle and confident, and Naruto couldn't feel any ill-will within her.

Sarutobi smiled at them, and then said, "She'll be preparing you for chuunin advancement based upon merit instead of going through another exam, Naruto. I'm certain that you'll attain your promotion in no time at all."

She smiled, keeping the frustration she felt from her face. '_Sarutobi, what are you thinking? You could just promote me unilaterally. This dissembling really raises questions about what you're planning... is there some reason you don't want me to become chuunin? I'm just going to have to wait and watch, I suppose_,' she thought. Aloud she answered, "Thank you for giving me this chance, Hokage-sama. Uzuki-sensei."

Yuugao-chan smiled back at her and chided, "None of that, now. You can call me Yuugao-sensei. We'll be working together quite often, and too much formality hinders teamwork."

"Yes, Yuugao-sensei," answered Naruto.

"That's all I wanted to speak with you about, Naruto," said Sarutobi.

"Come meet me tomorrow morning in training ground 23, Naruto. We'll begin familiarizing ourselves with each other's capabilities there," Yuugao-sensei said. "Thank you for this opportunity, Hokage-sama."

He bowed to Sarutobi and trailed out after his new sensei, thoughts whirling.


	9. Chapter 8

Uchiha Sasuke was livid, and wasn't being at all shy about letting his team know about his rage. Shaking with anger he pointed a finger at the boy standing awkwardly smiling a fake smile at them. "You _lost_ Naruto! And _this_ is what you got to replace him? How can you be smiling about this?" he yelled at Kakashi-sensei.

Behind him the boy stepped forward slightly and with a too-wide grin said, "Hello, my name is-"

Sasuke cut him off without looking at him. "I'm waiting, Kakashi-sensei. I want to know why Naruto is off of our team!" he demanded, folding his arms and glaring at his teacher. Sakura nodded her agreement, her glare even sharper than Sasuke's.

The boy continued to speak, completely ignoring the fact that they weren't even looking at him, "-ai, and I was assigned to your team by-"

Kakashi-sensei shrugged at the glares and said, "Hokage-sama assigned him to another jounin-sensei, something about needing remedial sword training."

They gaped at him. Sasuke almost stuttered as he asked, "_Remedial_ sword training? Naruto?"

The boy behind them continued on, "-and I hope that we can be-"

Kakashi-sensei nodded. "So now that you're not teammates with him any longer, you don't have to be worried about being trash for abandoning him," he explained happily.

Sasuke and Sakura shared a _look_. Something was just not right about this whole situation.

oOo;

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up from his paperwork as Hyuuga Hiashi entered the office looking upset. "Hello, Hyuuga-san. What can I do for you?" he asked calmly.

"I've heard that Uzumaki Naruto has been reassigned to a new jounin-sensei, one that focuses more on kenjutsu, Hokage-sama. Is this true?" he asked.

Hiruzen nodded.

"I'd like to request that you reassign my daughter Hinata to the same team, then. She's learned to use a sword and would also benefit from that kind of instruction," Hiashi said.

The Hokage blinked at him, then looked at the paperwork he had just been working on. '_Fortuitous circumstance? He asked just before I'd gotten to the sheet that I would've needed to change anyway if I acceded to his request,_' he mused.

"She's a chuunin now, I can't just reassign her without her approval," Hiruzen pointed out.

Hiashi sighed and nodded. "Just give her the option then, please? We can't train her in kenjutsu as we Hyuuga have no kenjutsu experts in our clan," he explained.

Hiruzen smiled. '_A simple request, and one that's certainly easy enough to fulfill. If she accepts that will leave team 8 short one person, though... I'll have to consider this carefully_,' he thought. "I'll see what I can arrange, then. It's nice to see you taking an interest in her progress," he said.

Hiashi looked uncomfortable at that.

oOo;

Uzumaki Naruto Kushina arrived at training ground 23 fairly early in the morning, having realized too late last night that he hadn't gotten a precise meeting time from his new sensei. She wasn't anywhere to be seen yet, so with a small shrug he began his stretching exercises.

He was in the middle of one of the intermediate kata when she showed up. He'd been aware of her well before she arrived, a small bundle of anger and shame moving in his direction, but none of it seemed focused at him so he continued the kata as he waited for her to announce herself. He'd gone through two more kata over the next half hour, and finally with a sigh he sheathed his sword and turned to her hiding spot.

"Good morning, Yuugao-sensei. Did you enjoy watching my kata?" he asked.

She dropped down from the tree she'd been lounging in with a smile. "You seem very comfortable with that sword, Naruto-kun. Do you mind if I call you that?" she asked in return.

He shook his head and said with a return smile, "No, I don't mind. How did you want us to familiarize ourselves with each others' capabilities?"

Unsheathing her own sword with a flourish she replied, "There's only one good way to learn, don't you think?" Without any further warning she attacked.

Whipping his sword out in the reverse grip of his style he blocked her sword whilst simultaneously striking at her knee. Smirking at her he just nodded in return, and then their dance began.

oOo;

Sarutobi Hiruzen rubbed his eyes and looked up irritably as someone knocked on his office door. "Enter," he called. The door opened and Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura walked in looking frustrated.

'_This is just going to be one of those days, isn't it?_' he asked himself. '_Why is everyone so angry today?_'

Uchiha Sasuke stopped before him, with Haruno half a step behind him on his left. With a bow he said, "Hokage-sama, I would like to request that I be taken off of Hatake Kakashi's team now that I've been promoted to chuunin. Instead I would like to take missions as a detached pair along with Haruno Sakura."

When he looked over at her, she nodded and said, "I agree with Sasuke, Hokage-sama. We would like to take missions independently of Hatake-san."

"And what about the new member of team 7, the one that was just assigned today?" he asked them. If anything that made them look even more frustrated.

"We would really prefer to work as a pair, Hokage-sama," answered Uchiha Sasuke firmly.

Closing his eyes he fought the urge to rub them. '_With these two leaving team 7 that leaves that team with only one member, making Sai effectively an apprentice. And with Hyuuga Hinata possibly switching teams that means I'll have two incomplete teams... or perhaps not_,' he thought as an idea occurred to him. '_I'll just reassign Sai to team 8 if Hyuuga Hinata accepts the offer to be assigned to team Uzuki. Hatake will be happier not having to deal with them anymore, he's certainly complained enough about them._'

Gazing contemplatively at them he asked, "You're certain about this? Both of you? This isn't the sort of thing that can be taken back afterwards."

Both of them straightened slightly and answered, "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Once again smiling, he asked, "Well then, what kind of a mission will you be taking today?"

oOo;

Yuuhi Kurenai entered the Hokage's office along with team 8. With a salute she said, "Team 8 reporting, Hokage-sama!"

He had looked up from his paperwork when they entered. He looked each of them over before his eyes came to rest on Hyuuga Hinata. "Hyuuga Hinata, I would like to offer you a choice. If you take it, I'll reassign you to a newly-forming team and replace you with someone else on team 8," he said formally. He noted that Yuuhi looked startled.

Calmly she replied, "What choice is that, Hokage-sama?"

"It's been brought to my attention that the Hyuuga clan lacks kenjutsu experts. A new jounin-sensei has already agreed to teach Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm considering reassigning you to her team. Of course as a chuunin you have the right to refuse reassignment as this is not a wartime reassignment," he explained.

She stilled, closing her eyes. When she opened them again they sparkled slightly. Her voice was warm and rich as she answered, "I accept this reassignment, Hokage-sama!"

He handed her one of the papers from his desk saying, "I believe that you will find your new team at training ground 23, Hyuuga Hinata. You should go meet up with them now." Nodding she left the room, not even sparing a glance at the other members of her team.

Looking at Yuuhi-san he said, "Please have your team wait outside for a moment. I need to discuss things beyond their clearance level with you." At her nod Kiba and Shino left, closing the door behind them.

"I am sorry to have to pull your team apart like this, Yuuhi-san, but in part this is due to Hatake Kakashi. As you know two of his team became chuunin. Those two have decided to leave Hatake-san and pair up for missions by themselves. Another jounin came forth and offered to help train Uzumaki Naruto, making him her apprentice. Thus, team 7 is being disbanded," he explained.

Eyes softening, she nodded. "A lot of people are not really happy with Hatake-san right now," she noted. "Still that leaves my team short one member."

Hiruzen shook his head and smiled. "I have someone else to fill the hole on your team," he said. "I was going to assign him to team 7 to replace Naruto, but with the other two leaving I'll simply assign him to your team instead," he said.

She nodded her acceptance.

"Hatake-san and your new team member should be here shortly, as I took the liberty of asking them to come as soon as possible two hours ago," he said, flashing an evil smirk. It appeared and disappeared so quickly that Yuuhi Kurenai blinked wondering if it had been her imagination. "Please ask your team to re-enter, and invite Hatake-san in as well."

They filed in and Hatake-san was indeed waiting outside. "Sai, I'm reassigning you to team 8 effective immediately. Yuuhi Kurenai here will be your new jounin-sensei," he commanded.

Sai bowed and answered, "Yes, Hokage-sama." He walked over to stand next to Kiba and Shino, who both visibly flinched away when he invaded their personal space.

"Hatake!" Hiruzen said sharply. Hatake-san looked at him with a seemingly-relaxed expression, but he could see that Hatake-san was tensed up from his tone of voice. "Today both Uchiha Sasuke as well as Haruno Sakura removed themselves from your team, stating that they'd rather handle missions on their own as a pair. Due to this, I'm officially disbanding team 7."

Hatake-san nodded a little shakily then asked, "Are you sure they're ready for this?"

Narrowing his eyes slightly Hiruzen replied, "Well, you _did_ nominate them for chuunin, and I _did_ agree, so obviously we _both_ think that they're ready for this or they would both still be genin. _Right_, Hatake?"

Slumping almost unnoticeably Hatake-san replied, "Yes, Hokage-sama."

Yuuhi Kurenai kept her smirk to herself.

oOo;

Uzuki Yuugao collapsed, dripping sweat and trying to regain her breath in great gasps. Naruto-kun had kept up a frenzied, almost sprint-like pace in their fight until she simply couldn't keep up anymore. Naruto-kun was smiling and not even breathing heavily.

'_How could they have possibly thought that Naruto-kun was the dead-last of his year at the academy?_' she wondered. '_He's a master of kenjutsu already! He's better than me, and is using a style that I've always wanted to learn but the only practitioner in Konoha died when the kyuubi attacked._'

She slowly got her breath back, rolling onto her back and looking up at the sky. '_How did he learn it? By all accounts he had never even picked up a sword before the end of the second task of the Chuunin Exams! That would mean that he acquired and mastered a sword style that only Uzumaki Kushina ever knew in all of Konoha, in a single month... this is totally impossible,_' she frowned to herself. '_Nobody, no matter how prodigal, could do that!_'

She finally caught her breath and asked him, "Naruto-kun, where did you learn that style? I've only ever seen one other person use it, and that reverse grip is very distinctive."

"Ano.. well, you know _what_ I am, right?" he answered, gesturing vaguely at his stomach.

She nodded. '_The jinchuuriki of the nine-tails, yes. The reports say that he unleashed its chakra only once during that mis-ranked mission to Wave Country. So this has to do with _it_?_'

Seeing her nod he continued, "Well, I started having dreams, where the fox showed me my mother and father. He showed me her memories, and that's how I learned it. I practiced it during the month before the final part of the exam."

"The nine-tails is talking to you?" she exclaimed, but immediately found that she still lacked the energy to spring upright.

"Not really talking, more like dreaming," Naruto-kun explained. "I haven't talked to it while I've been awake, and it has shown me my mother's memories. You knew her when you were going into the academy, right? I remember a little girl with your hair color..."

She slumped back looking at him in amazement. "You have seen, dreamt your mother's memories?"

He nodded. "Uzumaki Kushina, the former jinchuuriki of the nine-tails. I was always told that I was an orphan, that _Hokage-sama_ didn't know who my parents were. He doesn't know about this, I never told him... are _you_ going to tell him?" he asked pointedly. His tone of voice was bitter.

She closed her eyes, thinking things through. '_He's being discriminated against, by nobody other than the Hokage himself! And his father..._' her eyes flickered to the face carved into the mountain and back to Naruto-kun, comparing them, '_his father never would have wanted this to happen to his son. For now at least, for Kushina-sama, I'll keep his secret._'

She shook her head. "No. I don't know how many other people recognized your style, but I won't tell him that it's one that you could not have possibly learned here. Why isn't he more curious about you seemingly-overnight becoming a master of the sword, though?" she asked.

Rubbing the back of his head he looked a little sheepish, answering, "I know the kage bunshin. It was developed as a spying technique. When a clone is dispelled, I get that clone's memories. It's kinjutsu, forbidden because of the huge chakra expenditure it takes to form one initially."

The wording was interesting, and she arched an eyebrow at him. "Initially?" she queried.

He looked down and said, "Well... I have lots of chakra, so I can make _lots_ of them. And the fox heals me if I'm damaged, it even heals my mind, so I can survive having that many extra memories without going insane or anything. So it was only a month for you, but for me it was um... longer. A _lot_ longer."

"How much longer are we talking? A few months? A year?" she asked, slowly managing finally to sit up.

"More like... ano... a little more than two centuries?" he responded hesitantly. "But a lot of that was for chakra control!"

"So just to reiterate: you're thirteen years old physically. You have dreamt around twenty-three years of your mother's life, and you have over two hundred years of training?" she asked incredulously. "And the Hokage knows about the training?"

"I didn't tell him about it, but he knows that I could train with more than one clone, yes," he answered.

"You were holding back during the sparring just now. You were holding back during the exams too," she accused.

He nodded, looking down again sheepishly.

'_This is _not_ what I was expecting to find out today_,' she thought, '_but it does present an opportunity. I might finally be able to learn the Shi no Uzu style, the Vortex of Death. Beyond that the kage bunshin sounds like an invaluable technique_.'

"You will teach me," she stated firmly. "Both the clone technique and the Shi no Uzu. And I will help you find out why you are in the circumstances you are. Are we agreed?"

Naruto-kun looked surprised but pleased, and with a sigh of relief nodded. "I'll help you learn Sword Concentration, too. There's one other thing I need to show you as well..." he trailed off.

She quirked a brow at the unknown technique name, but let it pass for now. "I'm sure it can't be anything as surprising as what you've told and showed me so far," she said encouragingly.

With a single seal, he transformed into what could only be a young Uzumaki Kushina. "Well," she said with a younger but hauntingly-familiar voice, "I suppose not."

Uzuki Yuugao decided as the blackness took her that she was wrong about surprise.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hinata happily bounced through the village on her way to training ground 23. '_I can't believe I'm going to be on the same team as Naruto-kun!_' she thought happily. '_Kiba and Shino were good teammates, but Naruto-kun will be so much better._'

When she arrived she found Naruto-chan kneeling next to what she assumed was their new jounin-sensei, applying a cold compress to her forehead. She nodded to her when she arrived and said, "Hi, Hinata-chan! This is Uzuki Yuugao-sensei. I've told her about me a little, and about the training. What's up?"

Hinata blinked at him, then looked over their new sensei carefully. She looked exhausted. "What happened to her?" she asked.

"We had an intense sparring session," Naruto-chan explained cheerfully. "And then I showed her this." She gestured to herself.

Hinata nodded in understanding. '_Fainting when you see something like that is completely understandable, yes_,' she thought, remembering that she had fainted as well when she had found out.

"Oh!" she said, brightening as she remembered why she'd come. "Guess what happened!"

Naruto-chan looked at her with a smile. "I have no idea, but it sounds like something good," she said.

Hinata nodded. "Un. The Hokage assigned me to your team! He said that nobody in the Hyuuga clan could help me with my kenjutsu. I think that my father arranged it, though," she said as she showed him the paper the Hokage had handed to her.

Uzuki-sensei stirred with a quiet, unintelligible sound. When she opened her eyes Hinata said, "Hyuuga Hinata reporting for duty. Hokage-sama has reassigned me to your team as of today." She handed Uzuki-sensei the paper.

As she read the paper over, Hinata glanced over to Naruto-chan. She nodded back, and they seal-lessly they called forth clones. As their clones began sparring they returned their attention to their sensei.

She looked up at them, then at Naruto-chan and asked, "She knows already?"

Naruto-chan shook his head, then nodded. "Hinata-chan, there's something I should tell you that I didn't mention yet," he said.

She looked attentively at him.

"I've experienced some of my mother's memories. This is _her_ body, at this age," he explained while gesturing at himself.

Hinata shrugged. "You're still Naruto-chan to me, Naruto-chan!" she chirped at him happily.

Smiling Naruto-chan turned back to their sensei. "Hinata-chan was with me while I was training for the last half of the month. She can't safely make as many clones as I can."

Turning back to her, she asked, "Hinata-chan, how old are you now do you think? Clone-wise, I mean?"

Thinking through the last month she tried to tally up what she'd done. "I think a little less than an extra year, Naruto-chan," she said finally. "Once I get better at chakra control I'll catch up faster."

Shaking her head, Naruto-chan replied, "Remember that having too many clone memories isn't necessarily good. I told you about the sunset, remember?"

'_The day the sunset seemed foreign_,' she remembered. '_Naruto-chan was really worried that day_.' She nodded.

Uzuki-sensei looked back and forth between them, and at the clones sparring behind them, then visibly shook herself and said, "Hyuuga Hinata, welcome to team Uzuki. You can call me Yuugao-sensei, though. Can I call you Hinata-chan?"

Hinata nodded at her new sensei with a smile.

"Naruto-chan here," she looked over at Naruto-kun with an inquisitive look and smiled when she got a nod in response, "Naruto-chan was going to show me how to perform the kage bunshin, and she's agreed to teach me the Shi no Uzu. Is she teaching it to you too?"

Hinata shook her head and answered, "No. She's been helping me extend my clan's Gentle Fist to swords and now also to senbon, which you saw me use during the final part of the exams."

Naruto-chan nodded, saying, "We should probably start with kage bunshin and Sword Concentration, then."

Behind them the clones they summoned finished their sparring and dispersed by pairs into the surrounding areas. Yuugao-sensei noticed and asked, "What are they doing now?"

"Naruto-chan is helping me find more new techniques to use with my Byakugan," Hinata explained. "They're all going to try to come up with ideas."

Naruto-chan helped Yuugao-sensei to stand and Yuugao-sensei looked visibly shocked as she felt her hand. Reaching out to touch her face, she said, "This isn't a normal henge, is it? You're actually in _her_ body right now?"

Naruto-chan nodded.

"Can you teach that to me too?" she asked. "A true transformation would be incredibly useful."

Naruto-chan shook her head. "I tried teaching Hinata-chan, but I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing. Even her Byakugan wasn't able to tell exactly. I'm sorry, Yuugao-sensei," she said.

With a grin Yuugao-sensei commented, "You know, with a transformation like that and an all-female team we could join S&I..."

Hinata blanched and said, "Seduction and Infiltration?" as Naruto-chan giggled.

"Relax, Hinata-chan. That division normally doesn't take applicants until they're chuunin, and we couldn't leave Naruto-chan to fend for herself now, could we?" Yuugao-sensei said.

Relaxing with a smile Hinata shook her head.

"So, what is this Sword Concentration you've been mentioning, Naruto-chan?" Yuugao-sensei asked.

oOo;

"Chakra threads?" asked the Hinata-clone.

The Naruto-clone nodded. "They let you control your throws better. You could use them with your senbon and throw them further and still hit the tenketsu you were aiming at," she explained. She formed a thread as an example, tossing a kunai and dancing it around her in example.

Hinata-clone watched with her byakugan active and her eyes wide. "Teach me!" she demanded.

Naruto-clone grinned. When she was done, Hinata-chan would be the toughest kunoichi _ever_ to come out of the Hyuuga clan. She conveniently ignored the fact that that was already true.

oOo;

Naruto-clone and Hinata-clone crouched over a map, and Naruto-clone pointed at an area. "There, or somewhere around there. We need to take a mission around there so that I can try to find the contract," she said, indicating an area.

Hinata-clone peered at the area. "Shoki no Kuni? Miasma Country? Naruto-chan, that sounds dangerous..." she said.

"I could just send a few clones, but I thought it would be fun to go and get it with you," Naruto-clone said with a smile.

Hinata-clone smiled in return. Naruto-chan was so sweet sometimes...

oOo;

Sakura floated slightly above the ground, trying to find peace in the unusual sensation. '_Naruto was right, gravity is an excellent source of momentum. I doubt he was expecting _this_, though. _(_Maybe he was. And now he's off being smart and cute on someone else's team. That's _our_ job!_) _Maybe he was_,' she agreed with Inner Sakura, disregarding the rest of her statement to try to quiet her anger. '_But _true_ flight? Flight with almost no chakra drain? Sure, my top speed is limited to terminal velocity and I need to use almost half the momentum that gravity gives me to counteract its effects, but that still lets me fly!_'

Sasuke-kun watched her with barely-disguised wonder. Seeing that, she contemplated, 'He can't do it in combat, but maybe I can come up with a simple, non-combat flight-only version for him?' Thinking it through, she sighed. '_No, there's no way that even with reduced inputs he'd be able to do the math in time. Inner Me, you're the best! _(_Thank you!_)'

Spinning on her vertical axis to face him, she said, "I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. There isn't any way I can think of to do this without the math... you would need to be able to do the math in your head while paying attention to everything around you at the same time."

He nodded. "Sakura...chan. It's okay, I'm not upset at that. With you at my side I'm far stronger than I ever would be alone," he said, hesitating on the honorific. At her smile he relaxed slightly. "We should get going, it's a long way to Yu no Kuni. We want to be gone before Kakashi.. no, Hatake-san. Before Hatake-san finds us."

She nodded, and landed and walked with him as he headed toward the gate. '_A nice long infiltration mission to Hot Water Country was just what we needed. This will be the most relaxing mission ever!_ (_I wonder if they'll have mixed bathing pools?_)' She fought down her blush. That thought would be fueling many dreams and daydreams in the months ahead.

At the gate they met up with the ninja they were being assigned to, the Sannin Jiraiya.


	10. Chapter 9

Kurama watched with curiosity as Kushina-sama examined the seal on its cage. She was muttering to herself as she did it, and it felt a wave of affection for her.

"Are you sure that it works that way?" she asked it.

Kurama nodded back to her. "Yes, I believe that you can modify the seal here without the modifications being evident in the seal on your body in the outside world. At the very least if you attach supplementary seals to it in here they should leave no traces upon your body," it answered.

"I'll have to test that before I make any changes to the main seal," she stated. "It's too dangerous to do anything rash with sealing, as you know."

"What are you planning on doing to the seal, Kushina-sama?" it asked her with curiosity evident in its voice.

"If I'm decoding this properly than it looks like this seal is slowly _consuming_ you, and feeding your chakra into my chakra coils. That's abhorrent, I can't believe that Minato-kun would have used such a horrible thing," she explained with disgust. "Instead of that, I want to alter it to help you accumulate more power and to allow us to communicate while I'm awake instead of having to wait until I'm asleep."

"You could add some of the seals that summoning contracts are made with," Kurama suggested. "I would be honored to become your personal summon, although you would be able to bring forth only a small portion of my power that way."

She nodded, looking at him with wide eyes. "Are you certain, Kurama?"

"Very much so, Kushina-sama. It would allow me to protect you far more directly than simply healing your injuries after you are hurt. Not being hurt in the first place is the best form of healing," it answered.

She nodded again, then left the seal to lie back against its side, running her fingers through its fur. "Was there anything you wanted to talk about in particular tonight?" she asked.

Making a sound of pleasure it curled around her, and nodded. "You told your new teacher, or should I say your new _student_, a lot more about your situation than I was expecting. You have an amazing ability to tell a story that is nearly the truth without actually being true. It was quite devious of you," it rumbled. "Uzuki asked if you could teach her the physical transformation I've gifted you. It isn't something that can be taught, but I could help you make a seal that would anchor a part of me within someone else and allow them to take on a fox form like the one you have."

"Wouldn't people notice if someone suddenly started exhibiting your chakra?" she asked after some contemplation.

"Not if we design the seal properly. In addition, I believe that we could design it to allow a link similar to the one that you've developed with your clones, although perhaps more detailed. The way you've encoded hand signs as pulses in your chakra is ingenious, though," it said.

She smiled. "It took the better part of a decade's worth of time to make that work properly and to learn to do it to the point where I don't need to think about it consciously. Being able to have a link like that without all the work would be wonderful," she said as she scratched under Kurama's chin.

It rumbled in pleasure at her attentions. "I believe that I could also use it to heal the people you grant it to, although to a lesser extent than I can heal you. Still, it should be enough to help mitigate the use of your clone technique. I should also be able to increase their chakra capacity," it further explained.

"It looks like some testing on the seal is in order, then, and a lot of seal designing in addition," she said. "I'm glad that you took an interest in my memories of sealing theory, I would be worried without having someone around to check my work over for errors."

With that decided, Kurama settled back to watch her think. Her expression was just so endearing.

oOo;

"We must act preemptively, Hiashi-sama. If we're going to ally ourselves with the Uzumaki clan, we must make a show of good faith," one of the Hyuuga elders said. The others nodded in agreement.

"Right now that clan is just one person. If Naruto-sama's unpredictability and genius breed true than we are perilously close to losing it forever. We need to help him invoke the Clan Restoration Act!" another stated vehemently. "With Hinata-sama acting as our clan's heir apparent she would be unable to help him provide his clan with children. Hanabi-sama would be the perfect person to help him in that regard." Unspoken was the fact that any children Hinata-sama had by him would bring his strong abilities into their own clan.

Hyuuga Hiashi nodded in agreement with all the points raised so far in the meeting. "What kind of 'a show of good faith' did you have in mind?" he asked the first elder.

"We know that the village civilians treat Naruto-sama poorly," he explained. Looking slightly ashamed he added, "Until Hinata-sama explained the gravity of the mistake we were making we did the same. This must stop! We must, as a clan, publicly show our support for him by avoiding those shops and suppliers that discriminate against him. We must become the face of a village that likes and trusts him."

Turning to the second elder, Hiashi asked, "So you propose sealing Hanabi with the Caged Bird seal and arranging for her to marry into the Uzumaki clan?"

The elder shook his head. "With how much Naruto-sama has helped Hinata-sama with her Byakugan so far it would be counterproductive to seal away her sight. Imagine how much more he might advance our abilities if it manifested within his own clan!" he said. "Hinata-sama has made it clear that she will oppose the use of the seal when she becomes clan head. Perhaps we should take her stance to heart and cease its use beforehand?"

The rest of the elders muttered amongst themselves. Although outrage was the first reaction, the suggestion did have merit. The discussion continued on far into the night, and the radical suggestion that would reshape the Hyuuga clan and abolish the Branch house if it was adopted would be discussed for many more nights in the future.

oOo;

Temari, now known as _Sabaku no Temari_ in honor of the memory of Gaara, looked up as her brother entered her office. He, like her, had adopted the name of his deceased brother and was now known as _Sabaku no Kankurou_. "It's official then? Our father never even made it to the chuunin exams in Konoha?"

Kankurou nodded grimly. "It seems that Orochimaru not only was the ultimate cause of Gaara's death, he also took our father away from us. They need to pay, both Orochimaru and Konoha!" his voice raised in volume, almost shouting at the end. She glared, and he quieted down with a muttered, "Sorry..."

"And what was the decision made by the council?" she asked.

He smiled sardonically at her and bowed saying, "I greet you, Godaime Kazekage. As our father's eldest child and one of the stronger ninja in our village it was decided that only you would be able to bring together the various factions and lead us back to prosperity."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Right now the only thing that I seem to be able to bring together is paperwork. It's amazing just how much can accumulate over the course of a week," she said, gesturing at the tabletop in front of her.

"Better you than me, Kazekage-sama," he said. More gently he added, "I think they made the right decision, sister. Suna can be great again, and you're the perfect person to lead us to that greatness."

She smiled back at him, eyes shining.

oOo;

Tenten walked into the bar, glaring at the huddled shape in the corner. "There you are!" she said loudly as she walked towards it. The other patrons of the bar muttered disapprovingly at her but she ignored them in favor of her prey. "Hatake Kakashi, I've been looking all over Konoha for you for the past day and a half. I need to speak to your team member Naruto," she said firmly.

Hatake Kakashi looked up at her through drunk and bleary eyes. "Naruto? He's not on my team anymore," he said, "the Hokage reassigned him before he disbanded my team. I don't know where he is anymore, but his jounin-sensei is Uzuki Yuugao. Now go away." He turned back to his drink.

She nodded and left without a further word. '_I don't know how many people would recognize the kenjutsu style he was using from only a description, but I'm not just any person. He was using the same style that Kushina the Red-Hot Habanero used! I don't recognize the name of his jounin-sensei, she must be new..._' she thought as she headed home. '_I'll track down his new team tomorrow after training is over_,' she decided.

oOo;

Uzumaki Naruto Kushina woke up to a knock on her front door. Yawning and stretching she flared her chakra internally to render herself instantly awake and alert. Frowning she changed into her male form before answering the door. Hinata-chan smiled sheepishly at him.

"Naruto-kun, my father wanted me to invite you to breakfast with us," she said. "Would you like to come and eat with me this morning?"

Shrugging he considered, then nodded. "If you don't mind waiting for a few minutes I'll go get ready now," he said.

At her nod, he went into the bathroom to perform his morning ablutions, totally missing the muttered 'byakugan' that Hinata-chan said under her breath.

oOo;

Hyuuga Hiashi smiled as Hinata came into the room trailed by Uzumaki Naruto. "Welcome to our home, Uzumaki-san," he said. Indicating a place at the table between Hinata and Hanabi he added, "I'm glad you decided to join us for breakfast. Please rest and eat."

"Thank you for inviting me this morning, Hyuuga-sama," he responded in kind, taking the indicated place. He fought not to roll his eyes at the blatant attempt at matchmaking. '_So Hinata-chan was right_,' he thought, '_the Hyuuga elders really were serious about arranging a marriage between me and both her and her sister_.'

"Oh, I must not have been clear when I instructed Hinata to invite you," Hiashi-sama said. "The invitation wasn't only for today, it is for today and every day in the future. We'll always be happy to see you join us for any meal. Also, you can be a little less formal, Uzumaki-san. Clan heads such as ourselves would never get anything done together if we didn't occasionally relax our formalities."

'_Clan heads? Yes, Hinata-chan phrased it like that, didn't she? The Hyuuga and Uzumaki clans. They're really serious about this, then. A formal alliance with the heir apparent of the clan as one of my betrothed. Whatever Hinata-chan said to them must have really shaken their views of me_,' he mused. "Hyuuga-san, then? Thank you for the invitation," he bowed his head to Hiashi-san.

As they ate, Hiashi-san asked him, "Have you given any thoughts to the future of your clan, Uzumaki-san? As the last of your clan you would qualify for the Clan Restoration Act, and some might regard it as your duty to repopulate your clan and see it prosper into the future."

'_The Clan Restoration Act? And he's really right about it being my duty, as much as I would like to avoid thinking about it. Whether as a male or a female, my duty to my clan _demands_ that I have children_,' he thought. "I... hadn't considered it in that light before, Hyuuga-san. Until very recently I had believed that there was no way that I would be considered to qualify for the CRA. I'm actually still not sure if the council would agree to it," he said. "Doesn't it require a majority of the clan heads to agree for it to be invoked?"

"It does, yes. The Hyuuga will back you fully when you bring it before the council, Uzumaki-san. We believe that several of the lesser clans will follow our lead as well," he responded. "Have you considered yet our offer of one of the unused buildings in our compound as a place for you to live temporarily until your own clan holdings become available?"

"I don't really have any clan holdings to be made available," Naruto pointed out. "The Hokage tells me that my parents are unknown."

Hiashi nodded, but said, "Yes, if your parents are unknown you might not have any _existing_ clan holdings, but Konoha has given clans their own land before. That's how we Hyuuga acquired our compound. And with effort perhaps your parentage will come to light, and we may find that you have clan holdings that nobody is aware of."

Naruto nodded. '_So, he knows about my heritage but can't speak of it openly. There must be another law about that, just like the one covering speaking of the nine-tails. Just what is going on here, Sarutobi?_' he thought irritably. "I would like to look at the building before I decide, Hyuuga-san," he said.

Hiashi-san nodded placidly. The rest of the meal passed in relative silence. The food was actually quite good.

oOo;

The building they were offering was acceptable, though that was understating how nice it really was. It was currently unused, but was quite spacious and had room enough for a large family. Naruto found himself seriously contemplating accepting their offer.

"Might I examine your sword, Uzumaki-sama?" Hanabi-san asked him.

Nodding, he unsheathed it and held it out to her. As he did so, he said, "You can call me Naruto if I can call you Hanabi, Hyuuga-san."

She looked at it with her byakugan active, seeming disappointed. Knowing what she really wanted to see, he began his Sword Concentration. When her eyes widened in surprise he smiled at her.

From behind them both Hiashi-san asked, "What exactly do you do to get that effect, Uzumaki-san? It is very interesting-looking to our sight, especially up close like this."

"I call it Sword Concentration. I originally meant to use it as a simple chakra control exercise, much like Leaf Concentration, but Hinata-chan and I were able to find a use for it in combat as well. I can't actually see tenketsu, so it's less useful for me than it is for Hinata-chan," he explained. "It's still not totally useless to me. Although it doesn't make the blade sharper, it does make the sword itself much more tough, and I can expel chakra from it to deflect or even outright dispel some ninjutsu."

As an example he stepped away from Hanabi-san and spun into one of the shorter kata of the Shi no Uzu, expelling chakra as he went. To their eyes his blade left a glittering wake that coalesced into something like a half-formed kaiten, but unlike the kaiten it didn't dissipate. Instead it persisted for a while, swirling around him.

"So you can't use it to block a physical attack, but it will disrupt most chakra-based jutsu?" asked Hiashi-san. Naruto nodded in return, and watched with bemusement as Hanabi touched the sword carefully and almost reverently.

"Hinata, can you perform this maneuver as well?" Hiashi-san asked her.

"Yes, father. I can't perform it with senbon yet, but Naruto may have found a way for me to make it possible in the future," she answered. To demonstrate she charged a senbon with Senbon Concentration and then flicked it toward the nearby pond, then used the chakra thread she had attached to it to guide it into the target behind her. "I'm not very good with it yet," she said apologetically, completely ignoring the fact that the senbon had hit the target in the exact center of the bullseye. With a twitch of a finger the senbon came spinning back into her hand.

Naruto watched bemusedly as Hiashi-san swallowed almost audibly and then asked her, "How long have you been able to do that, daughter?"

"Naruto helped me figure it out yesterday during training, father," she said happily. She didn't mention that it was the work of fifteen clones practicing for eight hours yesterday evening that had helped her learn this quickly.

"I see...," Hiashi-san's voice trailed off as he contemplated Naruto speculatively.

Naruto hid a small smile as he caught Hanabi looking at Hinata and himself in awe.

oOo;

Uzuki Yuugao looked up as she heard her last name being called. When she saw that it was one of Might Gai's students, she tilted her head in confusion. '_Why would one of his students be seeking me out? Does he need me for something?_' she wondered.

Tenten walked up to the table she was eating at, and asked, "You're Uzuki Yuugao, right? Uzumaki Naruto's jounin-sensei?"

She nodded. '_Of course. Lately it seems that everything revolves around him_,' she thought. With an internal grimace she added, '_Even my love life_.' "That's right," she answered. "What can I do for you? I'm not sure where he is right now, but we're meeting for training tomorrow morning at training ground 23."

"I was hoping to find out more about the sword style he was using during the exams," Tenten answered. "Based on the descriptions I've read it was very similar to the one that one of my heroes used, Kushina the Red-Hot Habanero."

'_This is surprising, someone recognizing the Shi no Uzu from only a written description. It is fairly unique with the reverse-grip, but most people haven't studied the various styles enough to have ever heard of it before_,' she thought. Aloud she said, "She was my hero when I entered the academy, too. I always tried to talk her into teaching me, but then the nine-tails attacked and she died."

Tenten's eyes sparkled. "You actually _knew_ her?" she asked.

Yuugao nodded at her. "Uzumaki Kushina, the Red-Hot Habanero. Naruto-kun has agreed to show me what he knows of her style. I now have both him and Hyuuga Hinata on a team. It's not a full squad, but I suspect that we'll do very well together," she said.

"You have a space free in your squad? And you're concentrating on weapons in your training?" she asked in a rush.

"That's right," answered Yuugao.

"I've got to go then, before someone else takes that spot! Hokage-sama, here I come!" she said, jogging out in the direction of the Hokage's tower.

Yuugao blinked. '_I wasn't expecting this team to be quite so popular..._,' she thought bemusedly.

oOo;

Lunch after training at the Hyuuga compound was much less strained than breakfast had been, Naruto decided. He had been asked to train Hanabi-san by Hiashi-san later that day, and so that's what he was currently trying to do.

"We can't just start with Sword Concentration," he explained to Hanabi-san. "It's the next step after you master Leaf Concentration, Tree-Walking, and Water-Walking. Trying to go straight to it without doing the other steps just won't work."

She pouted at him for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. "How long do you think it will take me, Naruto-sama?" she asked hesitantly.

"Please, just use -san or perhaps even -kun, Hanabi-san. You have an advantage that I don't, since you can actually _see_ the chakra you're using. I would guess less than two months, but that mostly depends on your chakra reserves. One of the next steps after Sword Concentration requires that you have very large reserves," he told her.

Her expression firmed and she nodded eagerly.

"But you have to be careful not to exhaust your chakra in training, Hanabi-san!" he said firmly. "Don't overdo training or it will take even longer!"

The look he got in return told him that he'd accurately read both her expression and the emotions he could feel from her.

oOo;

Tenten knocked on the Hokage's office door. His secretary was looking at her encouragingly but she still felt hesitant about approaching him directly like this. She opened the door and entered at his command.

He looked expectantly at her, and she flushed before asking, "Hokage-sama, I would like to request a reassignment."

"Is there a problem with your current team or jounin-sensei?" he asked with grandfatherly concern in his voice.

She shook her head and answered, "No, no problems, but I just found out that there's a team focusing on weapons training that has an open spot, and I'd like to join that team and concentrate on my kenjutsu."

"Ahh, yes. Team Uzuki is indeed not yet a full team, but what would you suggest I do about your current team? They won't be at full strength if you leave them," he noted, leaning forward.

"They focus more on taijutsu than anything else, Hokage-sama. I really don't want to miss this chance to get better with my kenjutsu," she explained, almost begging.

He shuffled through some papers on his desk and then pulled one out of a pile. Looking it over carefully he thought for a while, then nodded to himself. Tenten kept herself at attention the whole time, hoping that there was a way.

Finally he spoke, "There is one possible way. There is a girl that could benefit from special training in genjutsu much as your teammate Rock Lee has benefited from your jounin-sensei's taijutsu training. If you convince the jounin-sensei Yuuhi Kurenai to take this girl, Kurama Yakumo, on her team then I'll reassign the other person on her team to Team Gai and reassign you to Team Uzuki. Do you wish to try this?"

She nodded with some relief. It was possible!

The Hokage scribbled something onto another paper and handed it to her. "If you convince her, give her this paper. It authorizes the reassignments but is contingent on her agreement to take Kurama-san onto her team," he said.

She bowed and said, "Yes, Hokage-sama. Thank you!"

He smiled at her as she left his office.

oOo;

"No," stated Yuuhi Kurenai firmly.

Tenten wasn't about to give up. "But...," but before she could continue her arguments for accepting the Hokage's requirement, yelling broke out behind her.

Turning, she saw that the Inuzuka, Kiba, was yelling at the boy with the creepily wide, fake smile. His teammate, the Aburame, was backing away from them both carefully.

Beside her, Yuuhi-sensei cleared her throat. "And if I do accept then Sai will be reassigned to Gai's team?" she asked carefully, not taking her eyes off of the confrontation.

"Here," Tenten said, handing her the paper the Hokage had given her. "This should say, I think."

Glancing it over Yuuhi-sensei nodded. "Well then it looks as if I have a new teammate to collect, and we both have to visit your team, and then Gai, and then the Hokage afterwards," she said with a smile. Then Kiba started yelling even louder as Sai spoke in his monotone voice, and she frowned. "I think that the sooner we get this done the better off we all will be," she said decisively.

oOo;

Gai looked at her somberly, then broke out into his 'Nice Guy' pose. "Seeking to further your training like this is most youthful, Tenten-chan! I heartily approve." Turning to Yuuhi-sensei he said quietly, "So Uzumaki Naruto is no longer on Kakashi's team, and furthermore his team was actually disbanded? And Sai-kun here will be my new team member?"

Yuuhi-sensei nodded with a smirk. "He actually tried to argue that the other two 'weren't ready' to take missions alone," she confided. "I'm sorry, I know that he's a close friend of yours, but none of the rest of us approve of how he's been handling the situation or his team."

Gai nodded to her. "I was there when Uzumaki was nominated too," he reminded her with a frown. "He's not the same person he used to be." Shaking himself out of his funk, he continued on in his normal booming voice, "Yosh! Let us head onward to the Hokage's tower, my fellow comrades! The fires of youth will guide our way!"


End file.
